Fighting For Our Lives
by EmilyAnn003
Summary: Somehow, I find myself in a mysterious part of Spain where the people are constantly out to get you. Luckily, there's a handsome man named Leon to protect me. Self-insert fic. Please read, sequel coming soon!
1. Handsome Men and Hostile Locals

_Hi guys! :D I'm back with yet another story:) This one is a self-insert fic of Resident Evil 4. Please tell me what you think! :D_

I pulled my thin jacket over my shivering shoulders as I proceeded to walk down the dirt road I had somehow found my self on.

"I knew it was a bad idea to come here…" I said to no one in particular.

I continued walking for about another 20 minutes until I came upon a giant, old-fashioned looking wooden bridge. Cautiously, I slowly made my way across it, taking soft footsteps.

When I stepped off the bridge, I found my self standing in a very peculiar place. There was a small path that led to an old, abandoned-looking house, and trees surrounding the area.

"Ugh! No more trees!" I shouted. I had been walking the entire day and had been forced to look at nothing but trees, trees, and more trees. I sighed and reluctantly continued up the path.

The house looked bigger, and emptier than it had a few yards ago. Just for fun, I walked around to the side of the house where there was a wooden box sitting on a wagon-type thing. I picked up the box and shook it like a Christmas present. I heard something rattle inside and desperately tried to open the box, but to no avail.

With a frown on my face, I went back to the front of the house and saw the door standing wide open.

"Weird…" I said to no one again.

I stepped up onto the porch and knocked on the door.

"Hello?" I called out. No answer.

I knocked louder. "Hello?" I said again. And again there was no answer.

I cautiously stepped inside the house, desperate to find out where the hell I was, when I heard coughing coming from the next room. I peeked around the corner and saw the coughing was coming from a man, probably in his mid-forties, and was very dirty-looking. I exhaled in relief and walked up to the man.

"Um… excuse me, sir?"

When he didn't turn around I walked closer.

"I was wondering if you might be able to tell me where I am."

The man turned around and that was when I realized just how foreboding he was.

I gasped and took a few steps back, bumping into a table.

"_Que carajo esta haciendo aqui? Largate perra!_"

My eyes grew wide when I realized what he had just said to me. "O-okay…"

I turned around and started walking back to the door when I heard what sounded like the creepy guy picking something up. I glanced back just in time to see him try to slice me in half with a rusty axe. Screaming, I barely dodged his attack.

"_Que diablos es lo que te pasa?" _I shouted in Spanish at him as he slowly made his way to me, axe in hand.

That was when I heard someone yell "Get down!" from behind me.

I was confused at first, but did as I was told. I squatted down, burying my face in my lap, and covering my head with my arms.

Two gun shots were fired and I heard the old man fall to the floor with a grunt.

I carefully stood up, dusted myself off, and looked at the man who had just saved my life. He was a tall, muscular man, who was probably in his twenties. He had blonde, Jack Dawson looking hair, and was _very_ (emphasis on _VERY_) handsome. He also had some grenades, a gun, and some sort of aerosol can on him.

He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a car engine starting. We both ran to the window and watched as one car drove the other off a cliff, and two Spanish police officers were murdered.

"_Shit!_" he shouted.

He quickly pulled out what looked like some sort of walkie-talkie and began talking to somebody on it.

"Is everything okay?" A woman asked.

"There was a hostile local. I had no choice but to neutralize him. There are still others surrounding the area." He explained to the woman.

"Get out of there and head toward the village. Take what ever measures necessary to save the subject."

_Subject?_ I thought.

"Understood." "He said. "But uh… there's also a girl here. She looks lost." He said, looking at me. I suddenly felt very self-conscious.

"Do you know her name?"

The man turned to me and asked, "What's your name?"

My mom had always told me never to talk to strangers, but something about him felt… safe.

"E-Emily. Emily Ryan." I stammered.

He nodded and turned back to his walkie-talkie thing.

"Her name's Emily Ryan." He said to the woman.

"Okay. I'll contact her parents and-"

"You can't." I said.

"Why not?" The man asked.

"They're dead."

The man of whom I still don't know the name of gave me a look of confusion and sympathy, and turned back to the woman. "She said they're-"

"I heard." She interrupted.

"Well, we can't just leave her here... She can tag along with me." He looked at me, and for the first time in _days_ I felt a spark of hope.

"I don't know, Leon." _Leon? Was that his name?_ "You don't need any distractions on this mission."

"I think I can manage having another person with me." He said.

I decided to stare at my now ruined black converse, just for the sake of something to do. I've had them for about two years; there were holes in the bottom of them, and they were covered in grass-stains and mud.

"Okay. Once you find Ashley, I'll send a chopper over and she can just ride back to American with you and Ms. Graham."

"Got it." The man said and he hung up.

He walked up to me and held out his hand. I shook it awkwardly.

"My name's Leon. I guess you're gonna be tagging long with me for a while."

"Yep…"

"So how old are you?"

"I turned seventeen two months ago."

He eyed my up and down. I could tell he was looking at my outfit. I was wearing black shorts that came to about the middle of my thigh, a light blue baggy tank top over a form fitting black one, a thin yellow jacket that was starting to be a little too small for me, black, finger-less gloves (that I noticed he was also wearing) and my black, high top converse. My brown hair was pulled back into a high ponytail with two small strands of hair handing down at each side of my face, And to top it all off, dark, smoky eye shadow, that was probably smeared.

"I can't tell if you're a prep or a tomboy." He said half sarcastically.

"Eh… somewhere in between. I'm not a stuck-up bitch, but I do like dressing up sometimes. And I like guns, trucks, shooting, and just violence in general."

Leon chuckled, making me smile. "Alright… let me go get these guys. _Stay here_." He ordered.

"Aye, aye, capn'." I saluted sarcastically and Leon went back outside.

Once he was gone, I looked around to see if there was anything I could use to fight with.

I picked up the axe and noticed how dull it was. _Eh… I bet I can still hit people upside the head with it…_ I thought.

I walked past the fire place, axe in hand, and through a doorway. I walked over to a little space beside the stairway and gasped at what I saw: skulls, lots of them. There were maggots crawling all over and in them. I nearly vomited but I stopped myself. _Who would do such a thing…? _I thought.

I turned around and walked up the stairs. I came up to a larger window, about half the size of the wall, and peered out it. There was a perfect view of the front lawn where Leon was currently fighting off more creepy men.

I turned around expecting to see a long hallway with multiple doors, but only saw a small wooden table. Bummer.

Walking over to the table, I saw a box of handgun ammo. I shrugged and put it in my pocket. This guy wouldn't need it anymore.

I looked back out the window and saw that Leon had killed all of the creepy men, and was now coming back into the house. I ran down the stairs to meet Leon back in the main area.

"I thought I told you to stay here." He said, annoyed.

"Relax, nothing happened. I had this." I told him, holding up the axe. "And here… I found this." I tossed him the red box labeled 'handgun ammo'.

"Uh… thanks." He said as he pocketed the ammunition.

"No problem. So… where are we?" I asked.

"Some part of Spain. I don't know the city name though."

"Oh… Well… Where to now?"

"Uh… We need to somehow find our way to the village. Come on, I saw a path by the house."

Leon and I began walking out of the house and towards the 'village'. We turned to the left of the house and walked through two fences, where a truck was parked before.

To the right, stood a wooden shed. We entered the shed and there were three boxes, handgun ammo, and a typewriter in it.

"What do you think the typewriter's for?" I asked.

"Hmm… I don't know." Leon said.

"Maybe they keep diaries around here somewhere!"

Leon chuckled. "Maybe."

He picked up the handgun ammo and broke the three boxes with his knife. In the box on the table with the ammo and the typewriter on it, there was a green plant. One of the boxes on the shelves was empty and the other one had 1000 pstas in it.

Seeing Leon open the boxes reminded me of the box I tried to open earlier.

"Ooo! Leon! Come on!" I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the shed and started walking back the way we came.

"What are you doing? The village is that way!" Leon stated, confused out of his mind.

"Just shush and follow me!"

I led him back to the box and stood there expectantly.

"Well…?" I asked impatiently, gesturing towards the box.

"Well what?" Leon asked.

"Break it!"

"What? Why?"

"Because I tried to get it open earlier, but I couldn't. Please? I really wanna know what's inside it!" I begged, putting on my best puppy dog face.

Leon sighed and gave in. He broke the box with his knife an inside it was four hundred pstas.

"See? Now aren't you glad I showed this to you?" I said.

"I guess so. Now come on, we need to go."

I followed Leon back to the shed and we walked past it, keeping on the path. As we walked I began to think about what I would do if I were surrounded by creepy men and he wasn't there. I would need to behave from now on if I didn't want him to leave me here.

"I-I'm sorry." I said quietly, with my head down.

"What?" Leon stopped walking and looked at me.

"I'm sorry for making you go back over there. I'll try now to slow you down anymore."

"Hey, don't worry about it. This money could come in handy. Now come on, let's keep going."

I smiled up at him and nodded, and we kept walking.

"Hey, L-Leon?" I said.

"Yeah?"

"Can I shoot your gun?" I asked.

"_What?_ No! Definitely not!

"Oh come on, _please!_ What if some creepy guy tries to attack me and you're not around?"

He didn't say anything; he just stopped and started at me. Once again, I put on my best puppy dog face, and he gave in.

"Ugh, fine." He said handing me the gun, which was surprisingly heavier than it looked. "Try shooting those birds over there."

He pointed to two black crows. One was sitting on the ground, and the other was perched on a sign.

"But they're just two, helpless, innocent little birds!"

"Yeah, and they're also annoying. Now come on, do you want to shoot the gun or not?"

I looked at the gun, and back at the birds. I _really_ wanted to shoot the gun, and they _were_ getting annoying…

"Okay. I'll do it."

I planted my feet firmly on the ground, shoulder width apart, held the gun with two hands, and carefully raised it up. I took a calming deep breath, aimed, and shot one bird, then two. Both were hit dead on.

I smiled up at Leon, who looked flabbergasted, and asked "Did I do good?"

"Good? That was actually… um..." He cleared his throat. "... pretty impressive. Where'd you learn to shoot like that?"

I shrugged and gave him his gun back. "I told you, I like shooting games."

He chuckled and said, "Alright, let's go."

We began walking down the path again and we passed a really disturbing signpost. I unconsciously inched closer to Leon. Right past the signpost, there was a beautiful gray dog who had its leg caught in a bear trap. While Leon helped him, I walked a little ways off the beaten path and found a plant that looked much like the green one we had found earlier, except this one was red.

Once Leon was done helping the dog, I asked him what the plants were. He said they were called herbs, and that when eaten they give you more health.

"Like medicine?" I asked.

"Yeah, exactly. Except, these heal you instantly."

Then he told me that you can only eat the red or yellow herbs if they're mixed with a green herb.

"What does it taste like?" I asked, letting my curiosity get the best of me.

"I don't know… just like a plant, I guess. I'll let you try one later."

I nodded and we kept walking.

At the bottom of the hill we were currently standing on, there were four trees. In between each tree (except the two trees in the middle) there were bombs.

As if it were nothing, Leon shot both wires and we proceeded down the path. Leon walked through the two trees on the left that used to have bombs on it, and I walked through the middle, where there were no bombs, to make the OCD part of my brain happy.

Suddenly, I heard a loud '_SNAP!_' and felt a sharp pain shoot up my right leg. And just to make matters worse, I heard someone shout "_Un forastero!_" Mentally translating it, I heard "_An outsider!_" Tears were pouring down my face from pain and fear as I shouted "_Leon!"_

Instantly the man was on the ground and Leon was at my side.

"Shit… your leg is caught. Now this is going to hurt…" He looked at me and I took a deep breath before nodding and saying "Okay…"

I couldn't help but let a cry of pain escape my lips when Leon pulled the bear trap off my leg. Once it was out I lost balance and nearly fell over, but Leon caught me before I could.

"Take it easy." He said as he sat me down on the dead grass.

I let out a mix between a laugh and a sob and said, "Sorry... I usually have a high tolerance for pain."

"It's fine, I know it hurts… Here… this stuff will take care of everything." He pulled out the aerosol can labeled 'First Aid Spray' and said, "But, just to warn you, it stings like a bitch."

After thinking for a minute, I took off my jacket and clutched it tightly. "Okay… I'm ready."

I held on to my jacket with all my might while Leon sprayed my leg with the first aid spray. When he was finished bandaging my leg, he helped me stand up, which also hurt like a bitch, mind you.

After a few more curse words, and scoldings from Leon, I finally managed to get back on my feet.

"S-sorry…" Said I, looking at the ground.

"For what?" He asked.

"For slowing you down… again…"

Leon sighed and said, "It's not your fault, things like this happen. You just have to get up, and keep moving. You can't beat yourself up over everything that happens."

I simply nodded and kept looking at the ground.

"Okay… Let's go." He said.

I stopped and thought for a moment, and then tied my jacket around the tree beside me.

"What are you doing…?" Leon asked.

"Leaving this here." I said blankly before walking past him.

"Are you crazy? It's freezing out here!" He caught up with me.

I shrugged. "I never get cold, and it's too small for me anyways." I lied, I was already starting to get cold, but it _was_ too small, which was why I left it.

"Well, here… At least take mine." He took off his jacket and handed it to me, and I couldn't help but notice how the shirt he was wearing made his muscles stand out.

I shook my head. "I'm fine, really." I offered a smile to him and he sighed.

"Suit yourself."

We kept walking and eventually came to yet _another_ shed. "Holy _shit!_" Leon exclaimed after walking into the shed.

I ran into the shed and froze. There was a woman. On the wall. With a pitchfork through her face.

"Tha-that could have been me…"

Leon quickly grabbed the green herb, handgun ammo and 100 pstas that were on the shelves and pulled me out of there.

Tears had escaped my eyes as we ran. But we didn't run for long; there were two guys blocking the bridge we needed to cross. Leon easily took them down and we crossed the bridge. I looked up and saw three creepy men at the top of a cliff.

"What are they doing up there?" I asked Leon.

"No idea."

I guess they didn't like us looking at them, because they ran away after I said that. We kept walking and came up to _another freaking shed._ This one had another creepy guy in it (of whom Leon took down easily), some handgun ammo, and 1,500 pstas.

Right past the shed there was a door. A big, creepy door.

"We goin' in that?"

"Yep."

"Guess we have no other choice, right?"

"Mhmm." Leon said as he opened the door.

I took a deep breath and followed him through.

_Before you say it… yes, I know I dragged this part out WAY too long, but I promise this is the only chapter that's like this. I just wanted more time to explain how I am lol. And yeah… if I were in this situation this is exactly how I would act. XD I'm almost done with the second chapter so I'll try and have that posted sometime next week. Wow. I feel so accomplished today. I posted this, and finished making my Halloween costume. Can you guess who I'm going as? _

…

_ASHLEY! :D I might post some pics and put the links in my profile on Monday so…. Yeah:P_

_Hmm… other than the Disclaimer I feel like I'm forgetting something… This always happens by the way… Oh well! I'll put it in the next chapters AN if I remember. Please review and tell me what you think! And don't forget: I own nothing except this story:) Bye! ^_^_


	2. Too Many Creepers

_Hi guys!:D I'm back with the second installment of 'Fighting for Our Lives'!:) I really hope you all like this chapter, I promise it won't be as slow as the last one, and I'll see you at the end of the chapter:)(Btw:… I tend to have a bit of a potty mouth in this chapter XD)_

After we walked through the gate, Leon's thing went off again.

"Leon, how ya holdin' up?" The woman asked.

"Bad question Hunnigan…" Leon replied. _Hunnigan...? So __**that's**__ her name!_

"Sorry to hear that. I'm sending you a playing manual."

"I'll take a look at it, thanks."

After he hung up, I turned to him and asked, "A _playing manual?_ What the fuck is that?"

"Hey! Language! You're only seventeen for Pete's sake…"

"Who's Pete?"

Leon facepalmed."That doesn't matter. Anyways, a playing manual is basically like a map."

"Why not just say 'map'?"

"It's complicated."

"Ooookayyyy…."

He looked at me like I was a complete weirdo (which I was, mind you), chuckled to himself, shook his head, and kept walking. I smirked and quickly followed.

We came up to a tree, and the entrance to the village. Leon took out his binoculars and made a slight gasp sound.

"What?" I asked.

"Come on." He said and he grabbed my arm and pulled me through a back entrance.

"_Alli esta!_" I heard a woman shout.

"They see us!" I shouted to Leon as he turned and ran through the village, pulling me along with him.

We stopped in the middle of the village, now surrounded by creepy men (and women), next to a roasting corpse. I had no time to gag, or even think about that, because Leon was already pulling me away, shooting at random people.

We ran into a two story house, and Leon quickly blocked the door. He peeked out a small, rectangular window, too small for anybody to get in through, and I heard him whisper something, though I couldn't understand what.

He quickly turned to me and said "Emily, go hide upstairs!"

"What? Why?" I asked, beginning to panic.

"Just go!"

Then we heard the sound of a chainsaw, and windows being broken. Yep. Definitely panicked.

"Son of a..." Leon said, just above a whisper.

I quickly glanced around the room for a place to hide and the only place I could find was behind the stairs. I ran behind them just as the downstairs window was being broken into.

Leon ran back behind the stairs too, and stood in front of me. He was either being protective, or he was just trying to get an overall view. Probably both.

A surplus of creepy men and women armed with pitchforks, axes, and even kitchen knives, came crawling in through the window.

Not even a second after they were in the house, Leon began shooting, one after the other. I was studying him. Studying how his arm tensed up right before he pulled the trigger, how his hair fell into his eyes when he would reload. And how worried _I_ would get when one of those _things_ got too close. But he always shot them. It was the same routine: Shoot the closest person, and run up and kick him, knocking the others back a few steps. Shoot, run kick. Shoot, run, kick, etc.

Sometimes one of the person's head would explode, sending blood and guts flying everywhere. It made me think of my parents. I had never wanted my mom more than anything at that moment. But I would never see her again. Both my parents were dead. Gone. None existing, out of this world, taken away from me. They-

"Emily, get down!" Leon shouted, snapping me out of my thoughts and back to reality.

"What?" I shouted back over the noise.

"_Get down!_"

I crouched down and blocked my face just as a grenade went off. Looking up, I saw a man with a chainsaw get up. _When did he get here?_ I thought. _How long had I been out of it?_

_Ding!...Ding!...Ding! _

All of the creepy people dropped everything, and ran outside, followed by me and Leon.

"_La campara…_" A villager said.

"The bell…" I translated aloud, glancing around quickly at all of the villagers. Leon looked at me with confusion.

"_Es hora de razar…_" Said another villager.

"It's time to pray…" I said, and Leon glanced up at the bell.

"_Tenemos que irnos…" _

"We gotta get outa here…"

Just then, all of the villagers began walking slowly to a door with a red insignia on it. As a man passed by me, I heard him say '_Lord Saddler'_. Who ever that is.

Once everyone left, Leon turned to me and said, "You know Spanish?"

"What?" I asked, confused, and out of my little trance thing.

"You speak Spanish. Whatever they said, you translated into English."

"I did? Sorry… I tend to do that. I've been taking Spanish for the past four years."

After Leon nodded in understandment, his communicator thing went off again.

Before the woman could speak, Leon said "Hunnigan, I have some bad news. I've confirmed the body of an officer. Some things happened to the people here…"

"Leon, you need to get out of there. Look for a tower, and follow a trail near it."

"Got it."

He hung up and sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

"How does she know to look for a tower?" I asked.

"Oh, uh… That's kinda what the playing manual is."

"So she tells you where to go?"

"Kinda. Like I said, it's complicated."

"Oh… So where do we go now?"

"Well… she said to follow a trail near a tower… And there's the tower, so come on. This way."

"Wait! Don't you want to see if there's anything useful around here?"

"I guess it couldn't hurt."

And it didn't. It helped. A lot. We found ammo, herbs, and _loads_ of money. And in the upstairs of the house we were in, there was a fully loaded shotgun.

After we were done looting, we began walking up the path beside the house, and entered one last shed.

"Hmm… That's weird." Leon said, as he ripped a piece of paper off the wall.

"What is?" I asked.

"There's a note here… I can't read it though, it's in Spanish."

"Here, let me see." Leon handed me the note and I began translating it.

"_Recently there has been information that a United States government agent is here investigating the village with a female American citizen. We do not know if she is an agent or not, but we advise you not to take any chances._" I gulped and looked at Leon, who motioned for me to continue.

_"Do not let either of the Americans get in contact with the prisoner._

_"For those of you not yet informed, the prisoner is being held in an old house beyond the farm. We will transfer the prisoner to a more secure location in the valley when we are ready. The prisoner is to stay there until further notice. Meanwhile, do not let either of the Americans near the prisoner._

_"We do not know how the American government found out about our village, but we are still investigating._

_"However, I feel that this intrusion at this particular time is not just a coincidence._

_"I sense a third party, other than the United States government involved here._

_"My fellow men… stay alert…_" I trailed off on the last two words, handed the paper back to Leon, and waited for him to say something.

"I wonder if this 'prisoner' is Ashley… Come on." He said and I followed him out of the shed, up the path, and through another creepy door.

The door led to a farm. There was another house, and a barn full of cows.

In a mini-shed by the entrance there was another typewriter. And beside that, something shiny was hanging above a well full of dirty water.

"Here, Leon, give me a boost."

Once he locked his fingers together, I stepped in his hand, and he pushed me up. I quickly grabbed the thing and stepped down, trying not to fall in the water.

The shiny thing was a pearl pendant and it looked like it was worth a lot, so I kept it to sell later on.

In the little chicken coop thing, hanging in a tree, there was a blue paper. On the paper there was Spanish writing (much sloppier than the writing on the other paper), which Leon asked me to translate.

"_Fifteen blue medallions… Seven in the farm… Eight in the cemetery…_

"_For those of you who shoot ten or more will be awarded."_

"Awarded how?" I looked at Leon.

"I dunno…"

"Well here, there's a little medallion right here."

Leon aimed his gun up at the medallion and was about to shoot, but I looked at him with my puppy dog face and he sighed, handing me the gun.

After I shot the gun with pure joy, Leon said "You know, that's not gonna work every time."

"Then you should get me my own gun."

He scoffed and I looked at him with a straight face. "Y-you're serious?"

"Why not? It would make everything so much easier."

He didn't say anything, just took the paper and began walking around the farm.

We ran into a few villagers (or were they farmers?) and Leon killed them. We also found all seven medallions that were in the farm, and he let me shoot all of them. "Consider it target practice" he said. There were two or three that were really high up, and it took a few shots, but I got them.

After we walked through a door, exiting the farm, we stood at the top of a hill. Walking down it, I saw another creepy signpost, and inched closer to Leon. I didn't want that thing anywhere near me.

We took a few more steps and felt shaking. I turned around quickly and saw a giant boulder rolling straight towards us.

I tried to run, but my legs were frozen in place. I couldn't move. I felt a wave of panic wash over me right as Leon shouted "_Emily!" _

He grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the way right as the rock rolled where I was once standing.

"You okay?" He asked, once the boulder crashed into a wall.

"Yeah…" I stood up and dusted myself off, noticing the huge, bleeding scrape on my knee. "Are you?"

"I'm fine."

We continued walking and came up to the entrance of a tunnel. We walked through it and there was _another_ signpost. This time, Leon saw me inch closet to him and said, "I know, it's disturbing. But you need to stay here while I go have a look around."

I nodded and did as I was told.

There wasn't much I could do but sit and worry while Leon went and fought off more creepy men. Every now and then I would hear explosions and sit in fear wondering if he was okay. Then I would hear more gunshots and be relieved.

A few minuets later the gunshots stopped and I couldn't hear any more creepy men. I expected Leon to walk back over to me and tell me it was safe, but when he didn't, I peeked out of my little hiding spot (behind a big rock), and saw Leon walk into a house with his gun out. I guess he wanted to make sure there weren't any creepy men in the house before coming back to get me.

I flushed, thinking it was sweet how protective he was. That was when I heard voices coming from the tunnel. I hid behind my rock and eavesdropped on the conversation.

"Se fueron de esto manera."

_They went this way…_ I mentally translated.

"Bien… bueno…"

_Good… Good…_

Then, I saw who was just speaking. There were two creepy men walking beside an _extremely_ tall person. They were heading for the house Leon had just entered.

"Oh no…" I whispered.

Two more bombs went off inside the house and the three men rushed towards the house. I quickly followed close behind. They ran inside the house, and I, not wanting to be seen, ran beside it and found a window to look through. Inside the house, I saw Leon talking to a Hispanic man who was sitting on the floor.

_Is that the prisoner…?_ I wondered.

Just then, the three men entered the room and Leon stood up quickly and ran over to the tall man, swinging his leg around to kick him.

I smirked, thinking about how Leon was totally going to kick his ass…

And then the man caught Leon's foot. I made a sharp, gasp sound and my eyes grew wide when I realized what was going to happen next.

In one quick motion, the tall man threw Leon's leg up, causing him to flip in mid air, and crash into the wardrobe, knocking him and the other man unconscious.

I covered my mouth, trying not to shout '_Leon!_', but a little squeak still managed to escape from my lips.

I watched as they grabbed the two unconscious men, threw them over their shoulder, and left.

_Dun dun duuuuuuuuunnnnnnn! Lol, you guys know what happens after this XD But anyways… I didn't know I would have this posted so soon… But I know chapter three will be posted on either Friday or Saturday, and if something has gone terribly wrong, Sunday. And once again, I feel like I'm forgetting something -_- …. Well… Please review and tell me what you think! :D Oh, and sorry if there are a lot of missed misspelled words, I'm really tired…. K well, see you next chapter! :D_


	3. On My Own

_OMG I'm soooooo sorry for not updating sooner! I was just really busy on the weekend and I hope you can forgive me:( Well…. I'll see you at the end of the chapter!_

I didn't know what to do. I was cold, alone, and terrified that someone would come after me. I had been sitting helplessly on the porch of the house for about thirty minutes trying to figure out what to do. It was a stupid move, but I didn't follow the three men that carried Leon out because I didn't want to be seen. I regretted not following them because now I had no idea where Leon was and I was really starting to miss him. I know we had practically just met and all but he was the first person I had talked to since me parents were killed.

Oh god… What if they killed Leon?

I stood up, trying to regain my composure, and wiped the newly formed tears from my cheeks. I couldn't bare another person that I cared about being killed. I had made up my mind to go look for Leon and make _sure_ he wasn't killed.

After about twenty minutes of nothing but walking, I had finally made it back to the village with, surprisingly, no interruptions. There were two doors that I could've gone through. One of them was the door that all of the villagers disappeared to after the bell had rung, and the other was behind the little coop that they kept a few cows in. Since I really didn't want to deal with any crazy people at the moment, I decided to take door two.

I walked up the little path that led to the doors and something caught my eye. A jacket. Leon's jacket. I picked it up and examined it: it was dusty, from being on the ground, and it was big, probably too big for me.

I smiled thinking about how sweet it was when he offered me his jacket, but I turned it down. As if on cue, the wind blew harshly, giving me the chills. I quickly put on Leon's jacket; it actually wasn't as big as I thought it would be, and it was really soft. I pulled it tighter around me as the wind blew again, and walked through the door in front of me.

The door led to another path that went uphill and turned to the right a little bit. The path led to a house. I walked up the path and there was a shed, but I passed it since I didn't have a knife to break the boxes that were in it.

I opened the back door to the house and walked in. There was a typewriter on a table by the fireplace and a set dinner table. I walked up the stairs and went into the bedroom. I screamed when I saw a masked man standing by the bed.

"W-who are you?"

"The name's Merchant." He said.

"So… you're a merchant?"

"Eh heh heh…" He chuckled. "Yep. That's me. Good ol' merchant. I'll sell ya' anything ya' like." He then opened his coat and showed me various weapons, which I gaped at. I had never seen this many firearms in my life. "How much do ya' got?"

"Excuse me?" I looked back up at him.

"How much money do ya' got?"

"Oh… uh… I don't have any money… but," I said remembering the pendant. "I have this." I pulled out said pendant and he took it from me, examining it in his hands,

"Ah… I'll buy it at a high price…"

"How much?" I asked.

"Ten thousand."

If I had a drink, I would have done a spit-take. "T-ten th-thousand?"

"Yep. But you gotta remember, stranga, this ain't America. Ten thousand here is about five hundred for you."

"True…"

He handed me the ten thousand pesetas and opened his coat again. "What are ya' buyin'?"

I saw a handgun that looked very similar to Leon's and asked the man how much it was.

"Eight thousand."

"That's a bit pricey…"

"Do ya' want the gun or not?"

"Alright, alright."

I handed him the eight thousand pesetas and cursed when I realized I had no where to put the gun.

"Do you have some sort of thigh holster or something?"

"You're in luck, stranga… I happen to have one right 'ere."

He pulled out a thigh holster and a belt that had slots made for holding grenades and ammo and such.

"What's the belt for?" I asked him.

"For ya' ammo. I noticed ya' had small pockets."

"Oh… well thanks but I don't think I have enough…"

"Consider it a friendly discount, for a lady such as yourself." He said all creepy like.

I put the holster on my right thigh and the belt around my waist, doing a little happy dance in my head about how awesome I looked.

"Thanks, Mister." I said, giving him the rest of my pesetas.

"Come back anytime…" He said.

I smiled at him and walked through the door we were standing by and exited the house. Standing outside, I could see there was a dead end.

"_Shit…_" I said silently to myself.

I walked down the path a little ways, to get to the shed at the end of it, and saw there was another tripwire bomb. I stopped and shot the bomb like Leon did, killing three birds that were on the ground. Oh well.

In the shed there was a box on a table. In the thigh holster beside the gun's spot there was a pocket knife. I smiled, mentally thanking the Merchant. I slashed open the box and found a box of handgun ammo that had twenty five bullets in it. I put the box in one of the slots on my belt and exited the shed. Beside the shed there was a well-type-thing covered by a wooden roof, with something shiny hanging from it. I shot the wooden block holding the lid to the well up, and stepped on the lid, grabbing the shiny thing. Unlike the other shiny thing I got earlier with Leon, this shiny thing was a brass pocket watch, but it still looked like it was worth a lot, so I put it in my pocket.

I turned around and saw another well, but this one didn't have a roof over it, and it didn't have any water in it. In fact, it had a ladder in it. I sighed; this was the only way to go…

When I stepped off the ladder I was greeted by an "_Un forastero!_"

"Oh great…" I said, sarcastically.

I turned around and aimed my new gun at the man who was now coming at me with a pitchfork. I tried to pull the trigger, but I couldn't. My heart was pounding. I had never shot anyone before. If I killed him, would it be considered murder or self-defense? Oh gosh… he was only, like, three feet away from me. I took a deep breath, and held it. If Leon could do it, I could do it.

_Bang! Bang!_

I shot the man twice, and he fell over the railing, falling into a lower section of what ever this place was. A few more deep breaths later, I continued walking.

I walked through a little hallway, and through a door, entering a room that seemed as though it was recently flooded. I sloshed around in the water, knifing barrels along the way. I found pesetas and ammo. Same thing in the next room, although this one wasn't flooded.

There wasn't another door in this room, just a lot of bear traps, which I over-cautiously avoided, mind you. I broke one of the two windows in the room and climbed out of it. I walked around a broken wall, which, when you think about it, seems impossible, and out two big doors.

I was so tempted to sit down in the dirt and never get up. It felt so nice under the cloudy sky, in Leon's over-sized jacket. But I had to keep going. I had to find Leon. I had to make sure that he was okay. That he wasn't dead. I continued walked and came up to a _huge_ door. It was blue, and had little handles on it. I gabbed one of the handles and pulled, opening the door.

"Holy…"

This place was big. No, not even big, more like _enormous_. It was right over a big, black, never-ending pit-of-doom. There were a few house/shed-type-things and there was a giant bridge going through the middle of it all. I walked around the little house I was standing beside, and over to the bridge.

It was big, and creepy, but it other than the fact that most of the wood was almost completely rotted, it seemed pretty sturdy. (**AN: This is where a facepalm would go. xD)** I carefully walked across it, taking soft footsteps, holding on to the rope the whole time, and not daring to look down.

Finally, I was off the bridge. I turned right and walked down the little steps, straight, right, up more steps, and through more big doors. As soon as I opened the door, I saw a man enter the house in front of me. I pulled out my gun, ready to shoot him, if he was one of those creepy men. I had about had it with those guys.

I opened the door to the house and followed him in when I heard him say, "_Te voy a matar…"_

Mentally translating it, I heard "_I'm going to kill you…_"

"Kill? Who's he going to kill?" I whispered to myself.

That was when I heard someone shout, "Do something, cop!" And then, "After you!" A familiar voice said.

_Leon?_

I quickly ran around the corner and saw a bloody man walking towards Leon and another man with an axe. Without even thinking about it, I raised my gun up, and shot the man in the head, pointblank, sending blood and guts flying everywhere.

When the man dropped dead, Leon looked at me and said, "Emily?"

"Leon!"

I ran over to him and hugged him tightly.

"I was so worried! I thought they killed you!" I let go and looked at him. He had a puzzled look on his face. "What?" I asked.

"Nothing…" He said, looking away. "Uh, go get that axe over there."

I nodded and walked over to the axe, picking it up.

"Now, when we lean forward, I want you to break these cuffs."

"But what if I hit you?" I asked.

"Well… let's just hope you don't."

I nodded again, about to do what he said, when the other man said, "Now wait a minute, I don't want to get my hands cut off by some little girl!"

"I am not little, I'm seventeen!" I protested.

"Well, _excuse me_ fo-"

"That's enough!" Leon interrupted, making me flinch. "Emily, just hurry up and do it."

"Bu-" I began.

"Just do it!"

I picked up the axe, and Leon and the Hispanic man both leaned forward. I took a deep breath and swung the axe down, breaking the cuffs, and freeing the two men. Leon stood up and I smiled at him. He eyed my belt and thigh holster.

"Where on Earth did you get those?" He asked.

"I bought them from some dude. You like?" I asked turning to the side so he could see the holster better.

He paused and after a while he smirked and said, "I like the jacket."

I blushed and said, "Oh… yeah. I found it back in the village. You can have it back if you want."

"No, no. You keep it. It looks good on you."

I blushed again, and tried changing the subject. "So, who was that guy? "

"Oh, he's-" Leon turned around, as if to introduce us, but stopped once he saw the man was gone.

"Shit… hold on." He said to me as he pulled out his communicator.

"It's Leon. Sorry I couldn't get in touch sooner, but I was a… bit tied up."

"But you're okay, right?" Hunnigan asked.

"I'm fine. There was a male civilian held captive. According to him, Ashley's in a church somewhere."

"What happened to him?"

"He managed to escape."

"Do you have a fix on the location of that church?"

"No, but apparently there's a secret passage in the village that leads there. I'm heading back to the village." He said, and hung up.

"Do you even know how to get back to the village?" I asked him.

"No, I thought you did." He looked at me, almost looking panic-stricken.

I laughed. "Yes, I do. I was just wondering why you told Hunnigan you were going back to the village, if you don't even know how."

"Well, I was kind of hoping you could take me there."

I laughed again, and smiled at him. "Okay, come on it's this way."

As we were walking out of the house, a familiar voice said "Over here… Stranga…"

"Ooo! Leon! It's the merchant!" I excitedly said to Leon.

"The who…?" He asked.

"The merchant! He's the one who sold me this stuff!" I showed him my belt, gun, and thigh holster again. "I know _you_ have some stuff to sell! Maybe you can buy something awesome! How much money do you have?" I asked him.

"Uh… Some where around thirty-six thousand. Why?"

I smiled. "Perfect. Come on!"

Leon followed me out of the house and around to the merchant.

"Ello, Merchant!" I said in a random, British accent, getting a strange look from Leon.

The merchant chuckled. "Got somethin' that might interest ya'…" He opened his coat and showed Leon all of his weapons. After Leon sold all of his jewels and such, plus my brass pocket watch, he had around sixty thousand pesetas.

"Oh, and, don't know if ya' noticed, stranga, but did you see the blue medallions hangin' around in the village? Come back after you've shot ten or more of 'em. I've got a specialized gun I want ya' to try out."

"Oh so _that's_ what they're for!" I said aloud.

I waited as Leon bought various things from the merchant, and talked to him about "selling a gun to a minor". What ever that was about.

When Leon walked back over to me, he showed me his new guns and then we began walking back to the village.

_Helloooooo! How'dya like the new chappy? Heh I thought I did pretty well for my first time alone :P Once again, I'm super-duper sorry for updating a week late! GAH! I don't even like saying it! But anyways, yeah, I might have sounded a little obsessed over Leon in this chapter but think: My parents were just murdered, and if he hadn't found me I would have either gotten killed by that first ganado, or I would have gotten brutally murdered in the village. So he was kind of like my savior… I guess. Oh and the only reason I don't call the ganados 'ganados' is because at this point in the game, we don't know what they're called yet, we just know there is something seriously wrong with them. If any of you know when, and __**exactly**__ when, we find out what they're called, please tell me! I can't remember, and I don't want to be calling them "creepy men" forever:( Anywho… Please review! ^_^_


	4. Creepy Tunnels and the Jaws Theme Song

_Tada! Here it is! The newest chapter of 'Fighting for Our Lives'! In my opinion, this is the best chapter so far. It gets pretty emotional so if you easily cry, I think you might need a few tissues… I almost started crying as I was writing it… Anyways, sorry for the delay, I've just been really busy with school. But I finally got this finished during Thanksgiving break! Yay! Anyways.. See you at the end of the chapter:)_

Leon and I were almost back to the village, but not yet. Right now we were walking through the house I had met the merchant in. Leon held up his hand, silently telling me to wait, while he checked the hallways. I nodded and Leon began pushing the door open as slowly as possible.

"Jeez, you take ten years to open a freaking door." I said, annoyed.

He rolled his eyes and pushed the door open a little more and stopped. There were voices coming from downstairs. He carefully stepped out into the hall when someone violently grabbed him by the neck, and held him in the air, chocking him. I watched in horror as the man I recognized as the tall man from before chocked Leon until he was kicking and turning blue from lack of oxygen.

I couldn't take it anymore. I shoved the door open and kicked the guy in the shin, doing no damage what-so-ever. At least it got him to look at me.

"Stop!" I screamed. "Please, don't hurt him!"

Everyone was silent. Then, the big man threw Leon down on the ground, brought his hand up, and slapped me. Hard. The sound was loud, and I fell back onto the floor from the force of it. Leon's eyes grew wide with shock and hatred for the man as I clutched my cheek in pain. The man smirked at me and turned to Leon.

"You carry the same blood as us, it seems. Never the less, you're an outsider. Just remember, if you become unpleasant to our eyes, you'll _both_ face severe consequences." He then turned around, and entered the bedroom.

As soon as he left, Leon quickly stood up and rushed over to me.

"Are you alright? Does it hurt?" He asked. "Let me see."

I turned my face to the side, letting Leon get a better look at my now swollen cheek.

"Yeah… it looks pretty bad. There's definitely going to be a bruise. Here…" He pulled out a can of First Aid Spray, and was about to spray it when I stopped him.

"No. You can't keep wasting all of that stuff on me. I'm fine. Really."

Leon looked at the red hand print on my cheek, and then at my eyes. I held his gaze, letting him know I was serious, until he put the can away.

"Wait here." He said and stood up.

I copied him. "Why? What are you doing?"

"Just stay here."

Then I realized what he was going to do.

As he began walking towards the door, I grabbed his arm and tried to pull him back.

"No, Leon, stop! You _can't_ go in there!" I shouted.

He looked at me with annoyance clear in his eyes and I let go immediately.

"Just _wait here._" He said one more time before I nodded and he forcefully pushed the bedroom door back open.

Not even a second had gone by before I heard struggling, and a gunshot. I sat down, not wanting to go in there, not wanting to be anymore of a bother to Leon, but not wanting him to get hurt either. All of the sudden, two steady gunshots went off, and there was a loud crashing sound. I quickly stood up and ran into the room to find Leon gazing intently out the broken window as if he was in another world.

I approached him carefully, not wanting to startle him. "A-are you okay?"

He turned around looking confused at first, but then assuring and said, "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go."

Then, Leon's communicator went off again.

"Leon, I've been able to get some now info that might help you." Hunnigan said.

"Fill me in."

"Apparently there's a religious cult group involved. They're called the _Los Illuminados_."

"Los Illuminados? That's a mouthful…"

"It means _The Illuminati_…" I explained.

Leon thought for a second and said, "Anyway… we had an unexpected run in with the 'big-cheese' of this village, Bitores Mendez."

"But you're okay, right?" She asked.

"Yeah… but he could've killed me, but he let me live… And he mentioned something about me carrying the same blood as them. Whatever that means."

"'Carry the same blood'… Hmm… Interesting…"

"Anyway, there are more important things than solving riddles right now." Leon stated.

"You're right. Hurry and find that church Leon."

While Leon was talking to Hunnigan, I was snooping around the room. I found a key that had some kind of bug-looking thing on the top of it, like the door back in the village.

When Leon hung up, I turned to him and said, "Hey Leon, look at what I found!"

He took the key from my hands and examined it. "Hmm… Maybe this opens the door back in the village…"

"Yeah that's what I was thinking."

He looked back up at me and then said, "Come on, let's go."

We walked out of the bedroom and down the stairs. There was a painting on the wall of a church, and Leon said something about Ashley. Who was this chick? Was she his girlfriend or something? Whatever… that doesn't matter. In the kitchen, there was an egg in the oven. An _egg_ in the _oven_. What the hell is wrong with these people? It wasn't even cracked or anything, it was just _sitting_ there!

After searching through the rest of the house, and taking what ever we needed, we walked through the back door and were greeted by the sounds of a chainsaw.

"Holy shit, it's the Texas Chainsaw Massacre." I said, but Leon completely ignored me. "But wait, I thought that one chick cut off his arm?"

Ignoring me, _again_, Leon shot volleys of bullets into the guy's chest, because, somehow, the paper bag was protecting his head. **(AN: Please note the heavy sarcasm in that sentence.)** I sighed and shot the guys legs, making him fall to the ground. Once he was dead, Leon and I continued down the beaten path, shooting who ever got in out way, until we came upon the door that led back to the village.

"Well, this is it…"

Leon nodded and opened the door.

There were a few more people in the village, but not many. We took them all down easily. Once the village was cleared, we walked up to the door with the huge, red, bug-looking thing on it. Leon took out the key we found and put it in the lock, and the door opened.

This room was medium sized and had a nice looking table, and a chandelier above it in the far, right corner. I wonder what they used it for…

There was another door in this room that led to some kind of storage room. There was a single red lantern hanging on the ceiling, and a trap door in the back.

"Wait." I said as Leon began walking forward.

Before he could say anything, I shot the lantern, and flames went everywhere.

"Why the hell did you do that?" Leon asked.

I rolled my eyes and walked over to where the lantern fell once the flames died down, and picked up a little jewel out of the ashes. "For this." I took the flashlight from his belt and shined the light on the spinel. "Look, Leon, I would never do anything unless I had a good reason to."

I handed him back his flashlight and the spinel. "How did you know that was in there?"

"It was in a game I played once. And I saw the sparkle."

We walked to the back of the room where the trap door was, and knelt down beside it. Leon lifted up the door and I turned to him as he turned to me. It was too dark to see anything, but I felt his breath on my face. Our faces were _so_ close. All I had to do was lean in just a little more…

I felt my face heat up and I quickly turned away. It would be stupid to kiss him, right? I mean, he was like _way_ older than me. It doesn't matter how big his muscles were, or how blue his eyes were, or even how his smile could cure a blind person. Okay, maybe I was exaggerating a bit there, but come on, you have to admit this man was gorgeous.

"Uh… I'll go first…" I said, trying to break the awkward silence, and jumped through the door when I saw Leon nod.

A few seconds later, Leon cautiously jumped down also.

"Lame. You act as if there are a whole bunch of babies down here or something, and you don't want to land on them." I said.

He rolled his eyes. "You know, you shouldn't just jump down like that, you could get hurt."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever _Mom_. Let's just go."

We began walking down the tunnel, and I couldn't help but feel a little freaked out. The steps were steep, and the walls were _slimy_.

"This tunnel could use some creepy background music…" I whispered.

Leon chuckled. "Yeah, like the Jaws theme song or something."

"No, no. Jaws music is specifically assigned to scary water creature things. Not creepy tunnels."

"Okay, then what would be good for creepy tunnels?"

"Hmm… The Halloween theme song!"

"Yeah, that is pretty creepy…"

Before I knew it, we were at the merchant again and Leon got upgrades on all of his guns. Once that was finished we paid and thanked the masked man, and walked through the door we were standing by. The door opened to another part of the tunnel, and once we were safely behind it I turned to Leon and whispered, "That guy creeps me out…"

He chuckled and we kept walking. "Why do you say that?"

"I don't know… It's like he _follows_ us everywhere."

We climbed up another ladder, this one was _long_. It took about a whole minute just to get up. When we eventually did make it to the above world, there was a path that was surrounded by, you guessed it, trees! Leon went ahead, to check the place out while I followed behind at a distance. A few seconds later, Leon turned around and said, "We've made it to the church."

As soon as we stepped into the graveyard that was in front of the church, someone shouted _Alli esta!_ Leon took down the guy with the axe, and I took down the bitch with the kitchen knife. When that was done, and after we shot the rest of the blue medallions, we walked up to the door of the church, only to find that it was locked.

"Shit!" Leon said as he pulled out his communicator.

"You like that word, don't you?" I asked.

Leon completely ignored me and began talking to Hunnigan. "Hunnigan, its Leon. The door's locked, I can't get in."

"Didn't they teach you how to pick locks at the academy?" She joked.

Leon scoffed. "There's some sort of indentation, like something might fit inside."

"Well, there's no use of standing around. Leon, you have to find some way, or some_thing_ to get inside."

They hung up and we stood there on the porch of the church. Leon looked as if he was thinking hard about something, and _I_ was thinking about what Hunnigan said.

"That is _so_ what she said!" I exclaimed, trying not to burst out laughing.

Leon looked at me, first like he was confused, but then he got the joke and smacked me in the back of the head.

"Get your head out of the gutter." He walked down the steps and I followed behind, laughing hysterically.

There was no other way to get into the church, so we decided to take an alternate route and see if the key was anywhere. The path we were on led to a bridge out of planks, kind of like the one above the trench. The problem was there were _huge_ gaps in this one. Leon could jump them easily, but I had short legs…

"Just jump across, and I'll catch you!" Leon shouted from across the gap.

"No you won't! You won't catch me and I'll fall into the water and drown!"

Then, in a calmer tone, he said, "Emily, I promise I'll catch you."

"And what if you don't?" I retorted.

"Then I'll jump in the water and save you. Just trust me."

I thought about what he said. If I did fall, and he jumped in after me, there was a ninety-percent chance he would land on top of me. But I decided to just man up, and jump.

"But wait, what about the jacket?" I asked.

"What about the jacket…?"

"Well… it's really big on me, and what if you lose your grip and drop me or something?"

He sighed. "Look, Emily, like I said before, I won't drop you. But if it makes you feel better, you can take it off and just put it right there." He pointed to a spot beside me on the platform.

"And just leave it here? But it's your jacket!"

He shrugged. "It's getting old anyway… Now, are you going to jump or not?"

I took of the jacket, folded it, and set it beside me, shivering and how cold it was with out it. I took a deep breath, readied my self, and jumped.

There was that split, horrifying second or two when both my feet were in the air, and I thought I would just fall, right there, but I didn't. Leon kept his promise and he carefully, but firmly, put his hands on either sides of my waist, and set me down gently.

He must have thought I was insane, because I was blushing like crazy.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

I nodded. "Thank you."

"Don't worry about it."

I smiled and we entered the shed that was to our left. There was another note, which was written in Spanish, so I translated it.

"_Closer of the Church._" I began.

"_Regarding the three fugitives, the apprehension of Luis is our top priority: The American agent and the girl, and distant second._

"_What Luis stole from us is far more important than the-_ Wait. Ashley's the president's daughter?" I asked, astonished.

"Yeah, why?"

"So she's _not_ your girlfriend…?"

"What? No! Why?"

"Oh, n-no reason! J-just wondering…"

He gave me an odd look and I kept reading.

"_Unless we get it back, she will become useless to us. We must get it back to execute our plan to the end._

"_If it gets in the wrong hands, the world would become a totally different place than what Lord Saddler had envisioned. At all costs, we must not let that happen._

"_Nevertheless, we're not letting go of the girl. To ensure that the agent doesn't get to her, I have locked the church door where the girl is being held._

"_Anyone who needs access to the church must first get approved by Lord Saddler._

"_There is a key beyond the lake, but it should be safe now that the 'Del Lago' has been awakened by our Lord. No one will get across the lake alive. _

"_Plus, our same blood courses through the agents veins, and we are working on getting Las Plagas into the girl. It'll be just a matter of time before they join us. Once they do, there will be nobody else left that will come looking for the girl…_ Leon, what are they going to put in me…?"

"Nothing. I won't let them do anything to you. Now come on. Once we get Ashley, we can all go home, and forget about this whole mess."

I just nodded and we kept walking. There was another gap, and when he grabbed my waist, I didn't blush. I was too busy thinking about what he had said: _"We can all go home_..."But the thing was… I didn't have a home. My parents were both killed; I had no one else left. And I didn't turn eighteen for ten more months; I wasn't even legally allowed to live alone.

Leon must have noticed the sad look on my face, because he said, "Hey, look." We stopped walking in front of the door we had to go through and he made me look him in the eyes.

"I _promise_ I won't let anything happen to you, okay? And if something does, I'll let you hit me. Right here in the face."

I smiled and nodded, looking at the ground. I felt my face heat up again and Leon smirked and said, "There we go." This made me blush even more. Damn you, cheeks! Why do you have to get red _every time_ he looks at you? What made it worse was now he _knew_ it happened!

When we walked through the door, the first thing I heard was _caw-caw! Caw-… caw-caw!_

"Oh my god, shut up!" I ran out into the open field-type thing, that looked strangely like an arena of some sort, and started shooting at as many birds as I could, which was eight.

After I had finished my little rampage, Leon and I continued our journey, and walked down a few steps and through a green door. There were more steps, and then a ladder, which I awesomely jumped down from, and then I immediately saw a blue light.

"Ooo! Merchant!"

I ran up and greeted the merchant, Leon following slowly behind. He's lame. It's like he doesn't know how to have fun.

"So, Stranga, I see you've all fifteen medallions. As promised, here's your specialized gun. Don't worry about money, this one's on the house."

He gently set the gun in my eagerly awaiting, outstretched hands. I turned around quickly to show Leon my new gun.

"Look, Leon! Isn't it awesome?" I showed off the gun, doing random poses with it.

"I'll take that…" He snatched the weapon from my hand.

"Hey, wait a minute! I was the one who shot all of the blue thingies!"

"Yes, but you're still a noob at this kind of thing."

_Did he just say 'noob'…?_

Leon sold his handgun and put the Punisher in its place.

"I am not a noob!" I screamed at him as we were walking out. "My aim is way better than yours!"

This made him laugh. "Yeah right, playing video games doesn't boost your accuracy hun, practice does."

I honestly didn't know what to say to that, so I figured my red cheeks could do the talking for me.

We used the other door this time, and robbed the shed that was there. Right past it there was another creepy signpost.

"Heads up…" I warned, and we slowly walked forward.

Yep, I was right. We heard a loud rumbling and merely side-stepped the boulder that came rolling down.

"Losers…" I said, making Leon laugh.

When we got to the end of the hill, we were standing in front of a mini lake/pond thing. There were a lot of creepy men in this area, but most of the time they were stupid enough to blow themselves up in the tripwire bombs, so we didn't use much ammo. We _did_, however, have to walk in the water, which didn't help the fact that my shoes were completely ruined.

We walked up the ramp, and across the platform, onto dry land. There was another hill, but no sign, so there weren't going to be any boulders.

At the top of the hill there was a door that led to two different directions. We could go right, which led to another shed and a dock with a boat, or we could go straight, which was just a cliff looking out onto the lake. Leon and I took the straight path first. We walked up the hill and when we got to the top, I though of how fun it would be to cliff dive off this thing. That was when we heard the boat. We crouched down behind some brush, and Leon pulled out his binoculars. It looked like the two men in the boat dumped something into the water and Leon said, "Shit…"

"What is it?" I asked.

"One of the police officers."He looked back into the binoculars.

Once the men drove away, there was a loud roar and I snapped my head up just in time to see what it was: Del Lago. He was big, at least one-hundred feet long. He was a dirty green color, like the color of the lake, and his mouth was huge. He had razor sharp teeth that looked like they could shred you to pieces.

"Okay, now would be a good moment for the Jaws theme song…"

I turned around and noticed Leon was walking away.

"Wait, Leon! What are you doing? How are we going to get across the lake with that thing…?"

"I'll kill it." He said with no emotion and kept walking.

"What? How do you plan on doing that?" I hurriedly followed him.

We turned left. "I don't know. I'll figure something out."

We were almost at the dock. "And what if you die? What am I going to do then? What about Ashley?"

He stopped at the dock and turned to me. "Jeez, could you at least have a _little_ faith in me? I won't die, I promise."

"Don't make a promise you can't keep…" I said quietly, looking at the ground. My eyes were getting watery, and I tried my best not to cry.

He sighed. "Look, Em, I-"

"No!" I interrupted. "You don't understand! Both of my parents are dead! They were killed by th-those _things!_ Right in front of me! You're the only thing I have right now… I can't lose you too…" The tears wouldn't stop pouring from my eyes. I weakly wiped at my cheek and looked back up at him. "But i-if you want to go and get yourself killed, that's your decision. I obviously don't mean anything to you. I'm just a stray dog that followed you home."

"No. It's not like that…" He said quietly.

"Then what _is_ it like, huh?" I awaited an answer, but he never gave me one.

"I'll be back soon." Then he turned around and got in the boat.

I sat there on the wooden dock and watched as Leon drove across the lake. I wiped my tears away. I hated this. Hated crying. I wanted to be tough, _needed_ to be tough if I wanted to make it out of here alive. Leon would eventually get tired of me if all I did was whine.

I stood up and looked out onto the lake. There was Leon in the little boat, and… something else. I squinted and looked closer to see a giant, green fish swimming just beneath his boat.

"_Leon!_ Look out!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, praying he could hear me.

Leon looked back at me, and then glanced all around him fully alert. Then, all of the sudden, Del Lago jumped up out of the water right in front of him, making the boat rock back and forth until the water grew more still. Suddenly, the boat sped forward as if it had a mind of its own. That was when I realized that the hook that was attached to the boat by a rope had caught onto Del Lagos back, and was now towing Leon around in the water.

My heart raced as I watched Leon fight the lake monster, stabbing it with the harpoons that were conveniently placed in the boat. Sometimes, he would fall out of the boat and I would watch in fear as he would swim back. Other times, Del Lago would disappear from sight, and I had to tell Leon where he was before he popped back out and knocked him out of the boat again.

Then, one last time, I shouted to Leon, "Behind you!"

The blonde man quickly turned around and chucked a harpoon straight into its open mouth. The monster cried out in pain and sunk deep into the water. Then, as if we hadn't had enough already, the rope from the hook wrapped around Leon's leg and he was forced to cut himself loose, or be pulled down into the depths of the murky lake.

Once that was over, Leon slowly drove back over to me. He stepped out of the boat and onto the dock. I greeted him with a massive hug.

"I'm so glad you're alright…" I whispered once I let go.

"Yeah well, I told you so." He grinned at me and my face turned red. Again.

"So where do we go next?" I asked, looking out at the lake.

"I saw another dock on the other side, so I guess we can go there." I nodded and we climbed into the boat. When we got to the other dock, we both stepped out and began walking towards a house that was there. All of the sudden, Leon made a loud grunting sound, and doubled over in pain, clutching his chest.

"A-are you okay?" I asked, my voice heavy with concern.

"Yeah… I-I'm fine. I just- Ahh!" He screamed our and fell to his knees.

"Leon!"

I helped him back up to his feet and we stumbled into the vacant house. As soon as we were in, Leon began coughing. A lot. He pulled back and looked at his hand: there was blood. About two seconds later, he fell to the floor.

"Leon!"

I ran up to him and felt his pulse: he was still alive. I sighed in relief. I didn't know what else to do; he would have to wake up sometime…

I looked around the room: There was a table, some shelves, and a bed.

_A bed…_

It hadn't occurred to me just how tired I was until then. I walked over to Leon, and looked at his face. Despite the way he passed out, he looked… peaceful. I looked back over to the bed and thought that maybe sleep wasn't such a bad idea. Leon would have to wake up eventually, and when he did we could continue the mission. I took off the sheet and turned it inside out, so it wouldn't be as dirty, and then I took off my blue over shirt and laid it of the pillow.

I laid down on the bed, and before I knew it, I had drifted off to sleep.

_Oh my god…. This chapter was so. freaking. long. It took me like 2 and a half hours to type it. Seriously. Oh well, I better get used to it. This is how I'm doing all the chapters from now on. Each chapter in the story ends where the chapter in the game would end. And sometimes the chapters are LOONNNGGG._

_Anyway… What did you think of the story? Do you think I'm going to fast? And what about all the drama between me and Leon? Please review and tell me what you think! :)_


	5. Exploding Heads and The President's Daug

_Well, after a very long wait, here it is! Chapter 5! I'm sorry I haven't been able to get this up sooner with finals and everything, but it's winter break now and I plan to spend most of it writing:) Kay, so I'll talk to you at the end of the chapter!_

When I awoke it was dark outside. I could hear the rain hitting the roof on the house I was in, and the thunder booming in the sky. I could barely make out the shapes in the room, but it was enough to tell what my surroundings were. I crawled over to the end of the bed and looked at the floor where Leon had passed out. He wasn't there.

"L-Leon…?" I called out, feeling panic slowly wash over me.

"Hey, relax." A man said. "I'm right here."

I felt a warm hand gently place itself on my shoulder and I knew immediately it was Leon. When I turned around, I could make out his face in the shadows from the torches outside. He looked pretty healthy, despite the fact that his hair was caked in blood, but mine probably was too, so I pushed that aside.

"Are you okay?" I asked, remembering how much blood he had coughed up earlier.

"Never better." He said assuringly, but I could hear the worry in his voice.

I gave him a sympathetic look and decided to change the topic. "So how long have you been awake?"

"About two hours. I saw you sleeping and just decided to leave you be."

"Oh." I said casually, even though I was melting on the inside.

He grinned at me. Obviously I wasn't as good an actress and I'd thought. I stood up and began walking to the door.

"What about your shirt?" Leon asked, pointing to the blue tank top I had laid on the pillow.

I shrugged. "It's probably ruined now; that pillow was filthy."

We exited the house, with me now only wearing black clothing, and my make up completely smeared. I wiped my eyes and turned to Leon. "Better?" I asked.

He nodded and we continued walking. We turned to the right, walking on wet, soggy mud that made squishy noises, and getting drenched in the rain. There was another door (what did you expect?) and there were a few random tiki torches that lit up the way. On the other side of the big, heavy, annoying, I'm-getting-sick-of-all-these-creepy-doors door, we heard rushing water.

"Hey Leon, didn't that paper say that the key to the church is behind a waterfall?"

"I think so…"

We kept walking up the path that was surrounded by a rock wall, which, to me, kind of looked like it was bowl shaped (creepy), when one of the creepy men began walking towards us. But something about him seemed… odd…

Then, his head began twitching. I went to pull out my gun when Leon stopped me. We carefully watched the man as he walked towards us. All of the sudden his head exploded (I'm not kidding, it just… _exploded_), and out came what must have been that _Las Plagas_ thing that was mentioned in the note. It was red, slimy, and kind of reminded me of a human heart. It had an eye on the left side of its face (if you could even call it a face), and tentacles that slashed around viciously trying to slice you with its claws. The thing was beyond anthropic.

I didn't care what Leon said; I pulled out my gun and began shooting bullets into the thing, one after the other with Leons help. Thirteen bullets later, it still hadn't died. We both continued to shoot volleys of bullets into the thing, until it made a loud, ear-shattering screech, and disintegrated.

"What the hell was that thing?" I asked Leon, breathlessly.

"I don't know… But I don't like it…"

Was that thing going to be in me? Leon promised he wouldn't let them do anything, but just in case, I don't think slapping him would make it better.

We continued walking up the path and the roaring sound got louder, up a few steps, there were planks that you had to jump across to get to the other side of the river. Of course, Leon had to catch me, and every time my cheeks would flare red. I was hoping he hadn't noticed, but with my luck he probably did. On the other side of the river it was a dead end, or so we thought.

"Hey Leon, there's a rope here!" I pointed to said rope that was tied to a part of the rocks. "I think we have to climb down it."

Leon walked to where I was standing and observed the rope. "This thing will never hold both of us at the same time." He finally said after minutes of examining the strength and length of it.

"Then what do we do?"

He thought for a second. "Here, I'll go down first and check out the area. If more of those things show up while I'm gone, shoot them." He tossed me a full box of handgun ammo.

I nodded and he began descending down the cliff. Nobody ever did come, so the extra ammo was useless. When it was my turn, I tightly clutched the rope and slid down, kicking off the wall every so often. As soon as I got to the ground I felt the sting on my fingers from rope burn. My gloves had protected my palms, but they were fingerless, so my fingers took most of the damage.

"Don't worry," Leon said. "I have them too." He showed me his fingers: they were bright red and had scratches and scrapes on them.

I clenched my fists. It hurt. I had never had rope burn before, but I figured that was the least of my problems at the moment, so I pushed it aside.

To our right were big, heavy gears that squeaked and hurt my ears. We walked forward and were forced to turn right, but part of the bridge across the river was missing. It wasn't like before where the gaps were small enough to simple jump across (Well, for Leon anyway…), these gaps were _atleast_ twice as big.

"What's the box for?" I asked, pointing to a box that was being held up by chains above the river. Wait… there was a board across the gap on the pieces of wood that was holding this place together. So maybe if we broke the chains somehow, the box would fall, but it would be stopped by the board and we could jump across!

I voiced my thoughts and Leon shot the box down. My plan worked perfectly and we jumped across. The gap wasn't as big as the others, so I jumped myself. The waterfall was big, and _loud_. We had to shout so we could hear each other.

"How do we get past there?" I shouted over the noise.

"I don't know, but there's got to be a switch or something to shut the water off!" He shouted back.

There was another gap and this time we had to shoot down two boxes. We jumped across them and then he climbed up a ladder and pulled a lever, shutting off the waterfall.

"Well that was easy." I said to Leon once he jumped back down. He smiled, giving me the butterflies. I didn't want to think about why, so I thought about something else. Pie seemed to work.

We walked back to where the waterfall once was. As soon as we jumped across the second box and onto the bridge, a numerous amount of infected villagers began emerging from the tunnel that was once hidden behind the waterfall, and from the path Leon and I had come from at first. We quickly turned around and jumped back over the boxes, since there was nobody over there. We pulled out our guns and shot the men as they were jumping from box to box, making them fall in the water. Once everyone was defeated, we entered the tunnel that was once hidden behind the waterfall, and I took a serious note to get new shoes when I got back home.

_Home…_

"I think this is the key." Leon said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

We had entered a room that had atleast fifty candles lined along the side walls. On the back wall, was some sort of circular stone that was mounted on the wall. When Leon removed it from its spot on the wall **(AN: Wall is no longer a word.. -_-)**, said wall rose up into the ceiling, revealing a hidden part of the tunnel. Leon took out his communicator and called Hunnigan.

"I've obtained an object that resembles the cult group's insignia."

"Good work, Leon. Head back to the church. Ashley's safety is our immediate priority."

Before Leon could say anything, I spoke up. "Hey! Did you forget about me? I'm important too, right?"

Leon rolled his eyes and I could see Hunnigan straighten her glasses in the small screen. "Y-yes, Ms. Ryan. It's just that Ashley-"

"Is the president's daughter, I know, I know."

"Yes. And that reminds me, I haven't been able to find much information on you or your parents."

_My parents…_

She continued. "So if you don't mind telling me their-"

"No." I said. I closed my eyes and clenched my fists. I didn't want to think about them.

"What?" Ingrid asked. You could hear the surprise in her reaction.

"I said _NO!_" I was about to lose it, I could feel the warm water trickling down my face.

"Ms. Ryan, I know this must be hard from you, but this is a very important-"

That was it. I opened my mouth to scream at her, but Leon beat me to it.

"Hunnigan, just give her some time." He said. "Her parents were just…" And then a little quieter. "… killed. She just needs time."

I assumed the woman nodded, because she didn't say anything, and the call shut off. My eyes were still closed, and my head was down. I heard Leon's soft, wet footsteps coming towards me.

He put a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, Em… You alright?"

I opened my eyes and nodded, looking anywhere but at him. "I'm fine."

He looked at me with obvious concern. "You sure? You know you can tell me anything."

"I said I'm fine."

Luckily, Leon was more understanding than miss 'I-work-for-the-government-so-I-get-to-boss-people-around', so he just nodded and we walked through the newly exposed tunnel, and through a door. We were standing on a dock, and there was another boat there. There were also a lot of bats flying around us.

"Ugh, I swear, I will kill the person whose idea it was to put bats here." I said.

Leon laughed. "Wouldn't that be the bats?"

I blushed. "Y-yeah, I guess."

We got in the boat and Leon quickly began driving away. Before we knew it, we were standing on another dock, this one was very familiar. Then I saw the blue torch flame.

"Ooo, Leon, the merchant!"

He gawked at me. "I thought you said he creeped you out?"

I blushed again. "Well, he's nice. And he has a lot of ammunition and stuff."

He shrugged. "Oh well, we'll catch him later. Right now we've got to get Ashley, and get out of here."

I nodded and we kept moving, my thoughts on the president's daughter. What was she like? She was the president's daughter, so was she a rich, spoiled, snob? Or was she just like any other person? Leon seemed so focused on her, and _only_ her. I wondered if they had some sort of history. I shook my head. He said that she wasn't his girlfriend. Wait, why was I worrying about that anyway? It's not like I cared who he was dating. He was just a guy who had saved my life… multiple times. It was just a coincidence that he was really nice, and super hot, and that he had really big muscles. It wasn't like we were soul mates or anything. Pshh… yeah. That'd be crazy.

"You're doing it again." We stopped outside of the two doors by the arena looking thing.

"Doing what?" I asked, completely oblivious to my reddening face.

"_That!_ You get this really weird grin on your face, and your cheeks get really red."

"O-oh… sorry. I just think… about… things…"

He narrowed his eyes. "What kind of 'things'?"

"Leon, I'm a teenage girl. Do you honestly want to go there?"

He thought for a moment. "Yeah, maybe not."

I smirked and we walked through the gate, and into the arena.

Suddenly, the doors to the gate began slamming shut, and before I could think about it, Leon pushed me back out, leaving me standing helplessly on the otherside.

"Why the hell did you do that?" I shouted at him.

"I have a feeling something bad is about to happen…" He said, mysteriously.

As if on cue, two _huge_ doors that were camouflaged to match the stone wall opened and out came eight men grunting and tugging on a thick rope.

And then we saw it. The giant. He was big (duh), a nasty green-gray color, and he was wearing shorts. I would hate to be the person to get those on him…

I guess being pulled on by eight men angered him, because he brought his fist up and punched the nearest man across the arena and into the wall, killing him instantly. The other men just stood there acting stupid, and, soon enough, one-by-one the giant ogre killed them all. When there was no one left, he turned to Leon.

I gasped. And very loudly, which I might add. "Leon, look out!" I screamed through the bars of the wooden gate to the man who was about to get pummeled by a giant, pissed off ogre.

Just as the thing swung his fist around, as if to hit Leon like he did the others, Leon did a super-amazing backhand spring, dodging the attack. He was _soo_ going to have to teach me that later. That really pissed it off. The giant roared in anger. So loudly, I had to cover my ears to keep from being temporarily deafened.

"Leon!" I shouted. I was terrified. "Oh god… Why did he have to lock me behind this stupid gate?" I hit and rattled said gate, but to no avail.

"_Shit!_" I heard Leon shout as the giant swung a tree at him. He dodged and then began shooting again. He had been using his _TMP_ the whole time. It wasn't the most powerful, no, that was the rifle. But the _TMP_ was rapid-fire, so it got in twenty-times the amount of bullets the rifle could get in a single second.

Just then, the thing hunched over in pain, clutching his head when a giant parasite (much like the one that was in the other guy) sprouted out of his back. Leon quickly climbed up its back and began cutting the thing with his knife. After about eight cuts, the parasite retreated back into the giant's body, and Leon began shooting again.

Suddenly, he stopped: the gun had run out of ammo. My mind was racing as the giant slowly approached the agent.

"This can't be good…" I whispered, and it came out sounding more as a squeak.

Just then, a howl was heard from up on the rocks.

"Hey, it's that dog!" Leon and I said in unison.

The dog that we had saved from the bear trap was here to help Leon fight the monster. He used himself as a distraction while Leon shot at it. But Leon was out of _TMP_ ammo, so he had to switch to his shotgun, which was almost as slow as the rifle. With the rifle, you had to aim, shoot, and ready the next bullet. With the shotgun, you just had to shoot after reloading when you needed to. But even then, the gun was so powerful that you had to take a second to recover before shooting again.

Once again, the giant was on his knees and the parasite was exposed. Leon climbed his back and cut the parasite until it returned back to its hiding place. Leon was almost out of shotgun ammo, too. He would need more to beat this thing.

"Leon!" I shouted. He looked at me and I pointed to the three shacks that were behind him. "I think there's ammo in there!"

He nodded and quickly ran into one of the shacks while the ogre wasn't looking. He came out holding his _TMP_, so I guessed there had been _TMP_ ammo in there.

Leon began quickly shooting again and soon enough, the giant was on his knees one last time before making a loud, angry roar and falling on his face. The gates reopened, and I ran up to Leon.

"Are you okay?" I asked, searching from any signs of injuries.

"I'm fine." He said blankly, even though there was an obvious gash on his forehead.

I looked at him sympathetically before slapping his arm. I didn't want to hurt him anymore than he already was, but I wanted to let him know I was angry.

"You idiot!" I shouted. "I could have helped you know!"

He rolled his eyes. "Uh… no. Did you see that thing?"

"Yeah… I still could have helped though!" I stood on my toes and tentatively reached my hand up and brushed his hair back, looking at his wound. Surprisingly, he didn't object. I grabbed a can of _First Aid Spray_ from my belt and shook it.

"Close your eyes…" I said softly.

He did as I said, and when I began spraying it, he very noticeably winced in pain.

"S-Sorry…" I stuttered, handing him the can, and looking at my feet. "Y-you can do it. I'll probably just end up making it worse."

"No… thanks. It feels better, actually."

I smiled but didn't say anything. He sighed. "You can't keep putting yourself down like that. You've been a great help to me here. I'm glad I asked you to tag along with me."

I looked up at him with disbelief and tears in my eyes, and once I could tell that he was serious, I wrapped my arms around his torso and hugged him tightly. The truth is, I was never really appreciated back at home. I didn't have very many friends, and the ones I did have weren't very good ones. So hearing that from Leon meant a lot to me.

"Thank you." I whispered against his chest.

"Hey, no problem." He pulled back, with his hands on my shoulders. "Do you want to continue the mission now?"

I nodded and we exited the arena-looking thing. If I didn't know any better, I would've said Leon was tearing up a bit himself.

When we got back to the church, Leon put the key in its place and the doors unlocked. The church was a lot nicer than I expected. There was a marble floor, benches, candles, anything you would expect to find in a normal church. Except in this one, instead of a cross on the back wall, there were four circles: one in the middle, one on the top of that one, and two on the bottom. The one in the middle was lit up. On it was the cult groups insignia (the bug thing), and around it was multi-colored stained glass. We turned left, walking in front of three benches and entered a little hole in the wall. It led to a side area that was kind of like a closet, taking up the length of the church. On one side of the closet there was a ladder. We climbed the ladder and browsed around the second floor. There as an opening in the wall in front of the chandelier and walking past that, led to a door that had bars on either side of it. I guess the people didn't want anyone going through there. Leon rattled the bars, but to no avail.

"Ashley's _got_ to be in there," Leon said, observing the door.

I thought about what he said in the shed a while back. "… Are you _sure_ she's not your girlfriend? You act like you care a lot about her."

It was obvious that I was beginning to annoy him with all these questions.

"No!" He shouted a little louder than he meant to. I flinched and he sighed in frustration with himself. "I-I mean… no…" He said in a calmer tone. "Look, she's the president's daughter. It's my job to protect her."

"W-well… what if I was in there?"

"What?"

"You know… my dad isn't the president or anything… you wouldn't have to save me. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't, either."

"Hey," He interrupted me before I could continue. "What did I say earlier?"

I shrugged and wouldn't look him in the eyes; I hated being scolded.

"I said that I'm grateful to have you here. I probably wouldn't have been able to get through this by myself. Now, I don't want to hear you say anything like that from now on, alright?"

"O-okay…" I weakly said.

He nodded and walked back over to the opening in the wall, getting a good look at the area.

"I'm going to have to jump across here."

"Like… across the chandelier?" I asked excitedly.

"Yeah, I need to get to the other side. There's a control panel over there, maybe it can release those bars."

"Ooo! Can I do it?" I asked, practically jumping up and down with anticipation.

"Absolutely not." Leon said, and then readied himself to jump.

"…Fine."

I crossed my arms and didn't say another word. Leon was obviously surprised that I would give up so easily, but didn't say anything. He jumped on top of the chandelier, swung forward, and leapt to the other side. When he safely landed, he walked over to the control panel and began pressing buttons. A few seconds later, the bars were raised, and the door was ready to be opened.

"Well aren't you going to open it?" I asked, when Leon stared blankly at the door.

"Huh? Oh… yeah."

I stood back as Leon slowly pushed open the door. "Ashley!" He said in a relieved tone.

"Don't come!" A frightened girl shouted. Through the cracked door I saw a piece of wood barely miss Leon's face.

_This chick is crazy…_ I thought to myself.

"Hey, take it easy." Leon shouted as he put his gun away.

I slowly pushed the door open the rest of the way and stood there, looking at the two. Ashley was pretty. She had short, light blonde hair that came to just below her chin. She was wearing a green plaid skirt, an orange sleeveless turtle neck, and really cute brown boots that came to her knees. But despite her looks, she looked terrified and helpless. Being cooped up in a room with no contact with the outside world for more than eight hours had to have been tough.

"No! Get away!' Ashley backed up against a couple of barrels that were in the corner and slid down to her backside.

Leon bent down in front of her and spoke in a soothing manner. "Calm down, everything's going to be just fine. My name's Leon. I'm under the president's order to rescue you."

The blonde's head snapped up. "What? M-my father?" She looked almost to tears.

Leon nodded. "That's right." He said. "Now come with me."

He grabbed her hand and helped her stand up. That was when she noticed me.

"W-who is she?" She hid behind him, and nervously eyed me up and down. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms, standing in a, most likely, more intimidating stance.

"Relax, Ashley. This is Emily. She's been helping me on this mission."

"Oh…" She relaxed, and looked a bit embarrassed. Then she walked over to me and tentatively stuck her hand out, expecting me to shake it. "Hi, I'm Ashley Graham, the pre-"

"President's daughter, I know."

She dropped her arm and looked away. I know I probably sounded like a bitch, but something about her ticked me off.

Just then, Leon began speaking. "It's Leon. I've succeeded in extricating my subject."

"Good work, Leon." I'll send a chopper over right away." Hunnigan replied.

"Where's the extraction point?"

"There's another path that you can take to get out of the village. The chopper will pick you up beyond there."

"Got it. I'm on my way."

We exited the room and when we got to the ladder, I jumped down as if it were nothing, and Leon did the same. However when it was Ashley's turn, she just stood there, hugging her skirt closer to her legs, looking uneasy.

"Well?" Leon asked.

"I-I don't know if I should…" She replied.

"What? Why-" Leon began, but I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him closer to my height.

"Leon, she's wearing a skirt." I whispered in his ear.

"Yeah, and?" He whispered back, looking confused.

If I could have facepalmed, I would have. But I just sighed. "Apparently she thinks you're some pervert who's going to stare at her ass while she's climbing down the ladder."

"O-Oh…" He straightened back up and hid his reddening cheeks with his hair. He was _blushing_. Oh gosh, my heart was melting. He looked so cute, I just wanted to hug him and kiss him all over!

Uhh… I didn't just say that…

"Look, Ashley, why doesn't he just catch you?" They both looked at me like I was an idiot, so I continued. "That way, he's forced to focus on catching you rather than looking… there…"

Leon nodded. "I can do that." He stood in front of the ladder with his arms our, ready to catch her. After she jumped, we walked back out into the main area of the church.

"I'll take the girls…" A strange voice said.

We all turned around. There was a man standing at the front of the church where the preacher would stand.

"Who are you?" Leon asked, eyeing the man. He was tall and tan. He was wearing a large, purple, floor-length robe, and had some kind of staff that looked terrifyingly similar to the "Plagas Head" Leon and I had encountered earlier.

"If you must know, my name is Osmund Saddler, the master of this fine, religious community." His voice scared me. I scooted behind Leon, and was practically hugging his back.

Leon glanced back at me and then over to Saddler. "What do you want?"

"To demonstrate to the whole world our outstanding power, of course. No longer will the United States think they can police the whole world forever! So, we kidnapped the president's daughter, in order to give her our power, and then… send her back…"

The blonde behind us gasped. "No… Leon, I think they shot something into my neck…"

Leon, being the protective sweetheart he is, took a few threatening steps forward. "What did you do to her?" He sounded pissed.

"We just planted her a little gift… Oh, there's going to be one hell of a party when she returns home to her loving father! But, before that, I thought I might bargain with the president for some donations. Believe it or not, it takes quite a lot of money to keep this church up and running."

"Faith in money'll lead you nowhere, Saddler." Leon interrupted.

"Oh… I believe I forgot to tell you that we gave you the same gift."

Leon's hand flew to his neck. "While I was unconscious…"

Saddler continued. "Oh, I truly hope you like our small, but special contributions. When the eggs hatch, you will become my puppets. Involuntarily, you'll do as I say. I'll have absolute control of your minds… Oh and Emily," My head snapped up instinctively, and I focused my wide eyes on the man before me. "Don't think we forgot about you…" He grinned evilly at me. It was like something out of a horror film.

"No…" I backed up and hit the church doors. Anything to get away from him. That was a big mistake. Just then, both of the doors swung open, pushing me to the ground and two cloaked men appeared in the doorway. One of the men grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder, while the other aimed his bow gun and anyone who dared to stop them.

I kicked and screamed. "_Leon!_"

"Emily!"

That was the last thing I heard before I fell unconscious.

_Phew! I'm finished! So.. how'd'ya like it? :D I already have the first part of chapter 6 written, so it won't be such a long wait this time. And my goal is to have chapter 7 up before the New Year… I can hear Toy Story 3 in my room.. I forgot to turn it off… ANYWAY! xD Do you think Leon was too OOC in this chapter? Was I a bit too… mean… to Ashley? I appreciate all the help I can get! As long as its constructive… NO flames lol. Well… Please review and I'll see you soon! :D_

_And sorry for all the typos, once again. As you all should know now, I stay up until like 5 in the morning typing this, and then I edit it the next day. I hope I got them all, and thanks for reading! :D  
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	6. Reunited and It Feels So Good

_So, how long has it been? Like, 3 or 4 weeks? Yeah I'm suuppeerr sorry about that. I lost my flash drive where I save all of the chapters and stuff and I didn't want to save it on my mom's computer (I didn't have my own then) so I basically couldn't do anything. But for Christmas I got a laptop (YAY!), so now I can write and write as much as I want. And I know what you're thinking. Christmas? That was like forever ago! Well, the laptop was used (we're not rich like most people, so we couldn't afford a brand new, $2000 one) so as you may have already guessed, it had a virus on it that wouldn't let me do anything. We took it to this shop where they fix stuff like that, and I got it back a few days later (4 days ago, and I've been working reeaallyy hard to get this finished. Wow, this is the longest AN ever lol. Well, I hope you like the chapter! Oh, and from now on since I have a laptop and stuff, I'm just going to type the chapters instead of writing them in a journal and then typing them, seeing as it doesn't take as long. So, I hope you like it!_

I awoke in a cold sweat, jolting out of my forced slumber. My heart was racing, and I could hear my labored breathing in the darkness.

"H-Hello?" I called out. No answer. "Leon?" Nobody answered.

There was no light wherever I was, just pitch-black darkness. Other than my own breathing, the only thing I could hear was the rain outside and the occasional thunder. I stood up to see how big the room was, when I noticed that my hands were tied behind my back.

I turned right and began walking, very cautiously. In a few steps I bumped into a wall; it was cool to the touch, and felt like stone. I kept walking, keeping my arm against the wall, until I had reached the corner. I turned left and did the same thing, only this time, there was a door.

I thought desperately about how to untie my hands, when I remembered seeing a girl in a movie sit down, and bring her arms out from under her bent legs. Since my legs were short, I knew I could do it. Once my arms were in front of me, I felt for my gun: it was still there. I scoffed at how idiotically stupid these people were. They didn't even disarm me. I stood up and jiggled the door handle. It was locked from the outside.

"Motherf-!" I shouted as I kicked the door.

_Desperate times call for desperate measures…_ I thought. I began kicking the door and hitting it with my wrists, hoping that a sane person would hear me and come to my rescue.

"_HELP!_" I screamed. "Leon! … Ashley! … Anyone!"

After about thirty minutes of constant shouting, my voice grew hoarse, and I was pretty sure my arms had begun to bleed. They stung worse than the rope burn from before. I sat back down beside the door with my legs crossed, and tried to undo the knot with my teeth. I eventually gave up; the knot was too tight. Once again, I began to cry. I felt bad, but I couldn't stop the tears from overflowing and spilling out of my eyes and down my cheeks. Horrible thoughts had entered my mind. _I'll never get out of here…_ I thought. _Leon probably isn't even looking for me… _

That was when I heard a loud bang on the door. I quickly stood up and ran to the other side of the room; I didn't want those freaks anywhere near me. I wouldn't doubt that they had injected the vile parasite into my neck while I was knocked out, what other horrible plans could they have in mind?

I took out my gun and held it with both of my hands, pointing it at what I had guessed what the door. There was another loud bang, and the door came crashing down.

"No! Stay away!" It wasn't until later that I realized how much I had sounded like Ashley when I said that.

"Emily?" A familiar Hispanic voice said.

"L-Luis?" Then, lightning flashed and I got a short glimpse of the man's face. "Luis!"

I put my gun away and ran up to greet him.

"What happened to you?" He asked me, his voice thick with his accent.

"S-Saddler… These two men took me… that's the last thing I can remember…" I explained.

"Shit! I was afraid of this… I hate to say it, but he has most likely already injected the parasite into your body. You're safe… for now. But after you start coughing up blood, I'm afraid there won't be much time." He untied my hands as he explained. When he was finished, I rubbed my wrists.

"W-where's Leon?"

"How should I know?"

"What? S-so you don't know where he is?"

"That's right."

I couldn't believe it. "… Will I ever see him again?"

He shrugged. "Hard to say, this place is huge. He could be long gone by now." When he noticed the pained look in my eyes, he spoke again. "But, from what I can tell, he cares about you. I'm sure he's going nuts trying to find you."

I didn't say anything after that.

We left the room that I was held captive in and began walking through a thick forest. It was dark out, and I had no idea where we were going, so it was hard to keep up with the man. As we were walking through the woods, I tripped over a tree root and hit my head on some rocks. We didn't have a flashlight so we couldn't tell how bad it was. He helped me stand back up, and caught me when I nearly fell again.

"Easy now…" He said. "We're almost there. There's a First Aid Kit in the house, do you think you can make it?"

I nodded, even thought I was starting to feel a little dizzy, and we kept walking. About five minutes later, we made it to the house he had spoken of earlier. It was pretty decent in size, two stories, but it only had two rooms. The bottom floor was used as a dining/living area, while the top floor was used as a bedroom.

Luis pulled out one of the chairs from the table for me to sit on, while he went upstairs to grab the First Aid Kit. I could feel my heartbeat in the wound, so it had to have been pretty bad. When he got back, he dabbed my forehead with a wet washcloth to clean up the blood. I desperately thought of something to say to break the awkward silence.

"So…" I finally said. "How do you know your way around so well?"

"My grandfather… He used to hunt in this region a while back. Before he died, he taught me where most of his secret passages and short cuts were."

"What did he hunt?"

He put the wet washcloth aside, and pulled out a can of first aid spray and a bandage, the kind that hospitals use. "Oh, you know… deer, rabbits, things like that. Now, this is going to sting."

"I know." I smiled, thinking about when I had caught my leg in a bear trap, and how nice Leon was. I wondered if he was okay, what had happened after I left?

While I was busy thinking about Leon, I didn't even notice that Luis had started spraying the cut.

"Okay, that should do it." He put away the can and shut the first aid kit.

"Huh?" I looked back up at him and he chuckled.

"I'm finished. As long as you don't mess with it too much, you should be fine."

I lightly touched where the wound was and felt a bandage. "Oh… Thanks. You know, you didn't have to do that… Or save me from that room."

He shrugged. "I like helping people."

I smiled. Luis was actually really sweet... and handsome. He and Leon would probably be really good friends.

That reminded me. "So, you really have no idea where Leon might be?"

"Aye, _señorita, _but I wish I did."

He sat down at the table across from me. He must have noticed my gloomy face, because then he said, "What do you like so much about him, anyway?"

I immediately blushed and smiled. "Oh, I don't know. He's nice. And sweet, funny, generous. He has really nice eyes. And hair. And I don't know… I guess I kinda-"

"Love him." Luis said matter-of-factly, with a huge grin on his face.

_My_ face, however, was so red I was worried it was unhealthy. "U-uh, w-what?"

"It's pretty obvious. It's written all over your face."

"Oh?" I tried to play it cool. "And when did you become such an expert of the subject?" I leaned forward.

"Since I saw how much you _gush_ over him!" He leaned forward too.

"Jealous, much?" I leaned in further.

"You wish." So did he.

Suddenly, the door flew open and in came a hurried man, followed by a scared woman.

"Leon?" Luis and I said in unison. I blushed and he smirked, our faces still close.

"Are we interrupting something?" Leon asked, confused.

I pulled away so quickly that I nearly fell out of my chair. "N-no! Of course not!" I stammered at the same time Luis calmly said "Yes." I felt like slapping him senseless.

Leon rolled his eyes and decided to change the subject. "Hey, Luis, you got something I can lock this with?"

He was already on it. He tossed Leon a bar, and he put it in its place, locking the door.

Luis was eyeing Ashley… in a particular area. "Oh, and I see the president has equipped his daughter with ballistics too…"

She gasped. "How rude! And I don't believe there's any relevance with my figure and my standing. Who are you?" Damn. Daddy's little girl's got some attitude. But I didn't get why he said that about _her_, my boobs were bi-

"Oh-hoh, well _excuse me_ your highness," He interrupted my thoughts. I was thankful though, I honestly didn't think I wanted to know where that would have gone. "But perhaps someone might want to introduce herself first, before asking someone his name."

"The name's Ashley Graham, the president's daughter."

Luis turned to Leon. "Is she…? Well, you know." He meant infected with the parasite.

Obviously Leon didn't understand. "Don't worry, she's cool."

I wasn't really paying attention to what they were saying. I was too busy staring out the window at the hundreds of villagers marching their way up to the house.

"Uh… Leon? Should we be worried about those guys?"

The agent looked out the window at what I was pointing at. "Dammit!" He cursed. "You two, go hide upstairs, now!"

Ashley started heading for the stairs, but I stayed in place.

"Have you forgotten that I have a gun, too? Leon, we've been over this, I can help."

He grunted in frustration. "No. There's too many of them this time."

"Just trust me, I can handle it!"

"I said _NO!_" He shouted.

We all had shocked faces, even Leon.

"I-I… I mean…"

I nodded. "I know... Come on Ashley." I began walking upstairs with my head down, not really caring if Ashley followed me or not.

Of course she did, and when we got upstairs I turned to her with my hand out.

"I'm sorry if I sounded like a bitch earlier. It's just that a lot has happened and I just want to go home."

She shook my hand with a smile and said, "I know, me too. This place is a dystopia."

"I know right…"

Just then we heard the sound of wood breaking and gunshots. We quickly darted our eyes across the room, searching for a place to hide, and we both ran for the wardrobe at the same time.

We stood there, frozen in place and afraid to move. All we could hear were the gunshots, and there was no way for us to tell if they were alright or not. Suddenly, there was the loud sound of glass shattering and we heard Luis yell "Leon, upstairs!" from the floor below. Leon and Luis both ran upstairs as a surplus of villagers crawled through the windows. They continued shooting for about another five minutes when Luis said "This never ends!" That seemed to be true. It felt like Ashley and I were in that closet for an eternity before the gun shots eventually died down, and we couldn't hear the two men any more. For a second I was frightened, worried that they had been killed, and now they were being taken to Saddler. I cracked the one of the doors to the wardrobe open the slightest bit, with my gun ready to be fired. But I didn't see anybody, so I assumed the two boys were downstairs. We stepped out of the wardrobe and Ashley dusted off her shirt.

"It's no use. You're just going to get dirty again."

She shrugged and changed the topic. "So… what, are you a secret agent or something? You don't look old enough."

"Nah, I'm only seventeen. Leon and I were separated for a while, and I bought the gun myself."

"Wasn't he angry though?"

I shrugged. "No not really. He had already seen how well my aim was, so I guess he didn't care."

She didn't say anything for a while, but when she did it was barely above a whisper. "He was worried about you, you know."

I looked up at her, stunned. How could he have been worried about me? I was such a pest to him…

Before I could say anything though, she continued. "After you were taken away, he would barely even talk to me. And when he did it was about you. He blamed himself for you being taken away like that, and I don't think he thought that he would be able to rescue you in time before they…" She trailed off, not wanting to finish that sentence.

She didn't have to; I knew what she was going to say. "Oh…"

Just then Leon came walking back up the stairs. "Hey, are you girls alri-" He stopped when he noticed my teary eyes. He rushed over to me. "Emily, is everything okay? What's wrong?" He did a once over of me, checking for any injuries, and when he didn't find any, he looked at me with confusion visible in his eyes.

I was crying… again. I usually wasn't the kind to cry in front of people (surprising, I know), but this whole experience was really hard on me. I didn't know what else to do, so I hugged him. He was obviously even more confused than before, but after a while he gently hugged me back.

"I'm sorry…" I whispered.

"For what…?" He asked.

"For making you worry."

I literally felt the realization wash over him. He comfortingly rubbed my back while I sobbed into his chest. "Hey, don't cry over that… I mean, of course I was worried, but the important thing is that you're okay."

"B-but Saddler… he… he…"

He nodded. "I know… But you have to remember that Ashley and I are in the exact same situation right now, and-"

I quickly backed away and wiped my tears. "Oh, s-so now you're calling me selfish? Look, Leon-"

Before I could finish, Ashley butted in. "No, Emily, I think what he means is that we're in this together."

The agent nodded. "Yeah… You're not alone. We're here for you; we know exactly how you're feeling."

That made the tears come even harder. "No, you don't! Leon, m-my parents were _killed_ by those _things!_" Apparently Ashley hadn't known about that, because she gasped loudly. "I… I don't want to become something that will… that will make someone feel the way I do…"

Before I knew it, Leon was hugging me again. It took me by complete surprise; he didn't seem like the type of guy who would hug someone willingly like that, but he did… and it felt… nice.

Ashley cleared her throat beside us. "So… what are we going to do Leon?"

I unwrapped my arms from his torso (because I was just that short compared to him) and looked up at him waiting for an answer.

"Uh… well… I guess we have no choice but to keep moving."

Ashley and I both nodded our heads in agreement and we began walking outside.

Outside of the house was a bridge, another little shack thing, two enormous gates, and the merchant.

"So Emily, is this the guy you bought your gun from?" Ashley asked me once we walked up to the masked man.

I nodded my head and the blonde female turned to our rescuer. "Leon, I want a gun."

The man's eyes grew wide and he gaped at her. "Y-you _what?_"

She rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "I _said_ I want a gun. You let her have one! And she's not even legally allowed to!"

"Hey, don't bring me into thi-"

Leon cut me off. "Well, neither are you, Ashley."

She grunted in frustration. "That doesn't change anything. She's not even an adult yet, she shouldn't even know _how_ to use a gun!"

What did she mean 'I shouldn't even know how to use a gun'? Was she being serious? "Yeah, well, neither should you, Mrs. _I'm-so-perfect-because-my-daddy's-the-president. _Take a look at the situation we're in. This shouldn't be able to happen either, but it did and here we are. Now, whether he buys you a gun or not, I want to get the hell out of this place before I completely lose my mind."

I trudged off in the direction of the little shack while they gaped at me, in shock.

In the shack there was a typewriter and a note.

"_Two Routes_" It read.

"_Just a while ago, I was informed by Lord Saddler that our men had shot down a United States military helicopter. There shouldn't be any more outside interference for a while now._

"_The Lord has also informed me that the younger girl has also escaped. Although she already has the Plagas egg in her, we still need to recapture her, along with the other girl, to initiate our plan to the fullest._

"_The three Americans can only get out of our territory by using one of two routes. This is where we will stop them._

"_We shall make uses of our forces to the greatest degree._

"_We will deploy a large number of Ganados…" _

"Is that what those things are called…?" I whispered aloud to myself, before continuing to read.

"…_in one of the routes to ensure that they do not slip by us. For the other route we shall leave the task to the giant. Whichever route they take, the agent will never leave here alive. Not with the girls at least."_

This worried me. I mean, sure, we've fought a numerous amount of 'Ganados' before, and Leon has fought one of those giant things before, but the way they described it in the note sent chills down my spine.

I walked out of the shack and saw Leon and Ashley talking prices with the merchant. Apparently, Leon had given in, and had bought Ashley a gun. I wondered if she even knew how to use it correctly.

"Hey, what's that?" Leon asked me, pointing to the note while Ashley stuck her gun in-between her belt and her shirt.

"Another note. Basically, all it says is that we have to pick one of these doors to go through." I pointed to said doors/gates.

"Okay… well what's so bad about that?"

"One route holds another giant, and the other holds a lot of those freaky villagers."

"Does it say which is which?"

I shook my head. "No, just that either one we take, we won't make it out alive…"

Nobody said anything to that. We walked over to the lever that opened the gates and stared at it.

"Well… are you going to pull it?" Ashley asked.

"Ashley, it's not that simple. One of these routes could lead us to our unfortunate deaths." I explained.

"I highly doubt that. They want us alive, right? I don't think killing us would make that Saddler guy very happy."

She had a point. But, in the note it said all he wanted was the girls, and that the 'agent' was going to die. Why did he only want us? He said he wanted Ashley alive to send her back to the states after she had the egg, but why me? How was I important? Maybe he just had a thing for young girls and he was planning on-

"My instinct says we should go left." Leon interrupted my thoughts, thankfully.

"Why left?" I asked.

"It just seems like the easier way to go."

"Are you sure…?" I pondered aloud.

He didn't answer, he just pulled the lever to the left, and that gate opened. He didn't have to say anything for me to know that he was, in fact, not sure; his face said it all.

When we opened the door we were greeted by "_Allí esta!"_'s and _"Un forastero!_"'s. There was a wagon with barrels in front of us, and a lot of villagers gathered around it, walking slowly towards us. So, I did the first thing that came to mind: I shot the barrels. They exploded, and every villager within range of the fire was engulfed in flames. Once there were no more Ganados in sight, Leon told us to wait where we were while he went and checked the area out.

Ashley and I stood there in awkward silence until-

_VroooOOmm VROOOOMM…_

Two chainsaws started and we saw Leon running for his life back to us.

"_Chainsaws_?" I asked Leon. He breathlessly nodded as the two women made their way towards the three of us.

"Girls, get in there!" Leon commanded, pointing to a rusty, orange, dumpster-looking container.

I glanced at the container. It was wide, but not very tall. We could both probably fit in it if we crouched down.

The two women got closer; they were jumping down from the ledge Leon came from. I was torn. One part of me said "_No, stay here with Leon. Help him fight, prove to him that you're stronger than he thinks!_" While the other side said "_Just get in there already! Do you want to get yourself killed? Leon has had special training for these kinds of things, just imagine how he would feel if you were killed by them!" _

I glanced at the container, and back at Leon. He was pulling out his _TMP_, ready to shoot the living daylights out of the two women. The one half of me was right; he _could_ handle this by himself. I quickly wrapped my arms around him, squeezed, and ran for the orange container of which Ashley was already hiding in. We shut the lid and listened for the sounds of gunshots, but the chainsaws were too loud.

I covered my ears and put my head between my knees. _I should have stayed out there…_ I thought. _He's going to get killed and it's my entire fault…_

I felt a hand gently place itself on my upper right arm. "He's going to be alright…" Ashley whispered in the darkness.

I looked up at her and through a tiny crack in the lid and saw her comforting eyes. I nodded slightly and we sat there, waiting for all the noise to stop.

About ten minutes of absolute horror later, we heard Leon whistle, giving us the signal that it was okay to come out. We followed the area of which the sound came from, and were eventually by Leon's side again.

"Thank you." He said, looking at me.

"For what?" I looked up at him, with a confused look on my face.

Apparently, he thought it was funny, because he laughed and pat my head. "For doing what I said. I know you wanted to stay out and help, but you went and hid with Ashley anyways. Thank you for that."

"Well, I knew you could handle it by yourself."

We smiled at each other for a moment, before Ashley said something.

"Yeah, about that… when are we actually going to get to use our guns? I don't want you wasting your money on things that we aren't even going to use."

"Yeah…" I turned to Leon with mischief obvious in my expression and he sighed.

"Alright, fine. The next time we run into a group of those things, I'll let you help."

Ashley and I squealed and high-fived each other, making Leon laugh.

"So, where to next, Mr. Macho-man?" I was strangely in too good of a mood to blush at the fact that I basically just called Leon hot and muscular.

The agent smirked at me and said, "Through this door, I guess."

We stepped through the door and thunder boomed loudly, making Ashley and I scream, and Leon full out guffaw. This stopped shortly afterwards though, because we gave him our famous death-glares and he quieted down.

Responding to our screams, more villagers came crawling out from around the corner of a look-out tower/building thing **(AN: Sorry, but I have absolutely **_**no**_** idea what to call these things. You know what I'm talking about though)**. Ashley and I looked up at Leon for approval, and when he nodded, we pulled out our guns and began shooting. The whole time, Ashley never could get the hang of shooting the gun. The only time she hit someone, it was in their shoulder, and they just kept trying to kill us. A few times, one of the villagers would pick either Ashley or I up and throw us over his shoulder, carrying us away. Luckily though, Leon would shoot the Ganado, making him drop us on the ground, which hurt like hell, mind you.

When everyone was gone, I turned to Leon. "It's locked, what do we do?"

"Well, I found this key on one of those chainsaw-wielding…"

"Bitches." I said, finishing Leon's sentence.

He chuckled. "Yes, and I think it goes to this door."

He put the key in the lock and, _ta-da!, _it magically opened. Well, not 'magically', but you know what I mean.

Before we knew it, we were standing on a bridge, facing the biggest doors we've seen so far. We walked up to said doors and pulled on it: locked, of course.

"Looks like this is the only way out of the village." Leon said, then examining the lock closer. "This looks like some sort of retinal scanner…"

"Well, what does this mean?" I asked.

"It's kind of like a fingerprint scanner, but instead of scanning your fingerprint, it reads your eye-"

"I know what it _does_, but what does it mean for us? How are we supposed to get out of here?"

When he didn't say anything, Ashley spoke up. "Keep moving?" She asked.

He looked at her and smiled. "Yeah."

So that's what we did. We walked left of the door and came up to a lift that carried you over a big trench, and I was starting to believe that this whole place was built on one. The lift was rusty, but it was the only way to go, so we got on. About halfway down, an axe flew towards our cart and nearly hit me in the face, but thankfully Ashley pushed me out of the way in time. There were villagers on the other side, and on platforms above it. Every once and a while, someone would jump down on top of the cart, and try to break us free from the line, but we always shot them before they could do anything. Finally, we had shot everyone down, and we reached the other side. We carefully stepped off and did a once-over of each other, making sure no one was hurt. When we didn't find any injuries, we continued walking. There were steep, metal stairs that we had to walk down, and once that was over with we reached another merchant. I greeted him with my usual British accent, which Ashley hadn't heard yet; that gave her a good laugh. There were no new upgrades, but it gave Leon a chance to sell some of the Spinel's he had picked up along the way here. Once we were finished with everything, we thanked the kind man and continued walking.

We entered a door and the first thing I noticed was the big barn/storage looking building a few yards away. There was a little slope downward, and then following the beaten path, we walked up to it. Leon approached the door with caution and put his hand on the door handle.

"You girls better stay outside." He said. "Go find a place to hide while I check this out."

"But Leon-" I began.

"Please, just do it!"

I didn't like it when he shouted like that, but I knew from experience not to question him if he said he had a bad feeling about something. Ashley and I quickly ran to the side of the building and hid between the wall and some rocks. You could hardly see anything except what little the moonlight shone down on.

"I hope he's going to be okay…" Ashley whispered.

"Yeah, me too."

"It would kind of suck if he died and left us out here…"

"Ashley please," I whispered harshly. "I don't want to think about that right now."

"S-sorry…" Then she changed the subject. "Then what do you want to talk about?"

"Umm… I don't know… Uhh… how's life as the president's daughter…?" I managed to finally say. It was all I could think of.

The blonde laughed beside me. "It's tough, to be honest. Everybody always wants to know where you are, and what you're doing every second of the day… I can't leave my house without being swarmed by flashing cameras and hasty news reporters. I was actually thinking of getting my own apartment instead of living in the White House."

"Is it really that tough? It seems pretty easy when I see you on T.V."

"That's all just an act for the cameras… and I'm not the only one, either. My father thinks it's tough too."

"Well, he did a good job by hiring Leon, that's for sure."

We both laughed and then suddenly, there was a loud bang and the building beside us caught on fire, making us yelp. Thankfully, though, we covered our mouths before any real sound escaped. And the fire wasn't entirely bad on the part we were hiding by, so we decided to stay put until it got worse.

"Do you think he's okay…?" I whispered to Ashley. She didn't say anything; we just listened in intense silence for gunshots. Finally, after a few dreading seconds, the surprisingly peaceful sounds of Leon's _TMP_ were heard coming from inside the building.

We were both terrified, and we both knew it, but we pretended like we weren't and continued talking. I learned a lot about her, actually. I found out that when she was five she broke her right leg, and when she was eight she and her father lived on a farm and owned six horses. Even that her favorite was a white Bronco named Angel. I told her about myself, too. About how when I was two I got a bead stuck up my nose, when I was five or six I broke my wrist, and when I was nine I was scared of the dark, but I never used a nightlight because I wanted to be brave. And how when I was twelve I wore my Santa hat _all_ year long, and when I finally took it off, there was a rat in my hair.

Ashley cracked up at this. "_What?_ No there wasn't!"

I didn't deny it (because there actually wasn't, I just made it up to see what she would say), I just laughed right along with her. We didn't even notice when a tall, handsome man emerged from the burning building a few feet in front of us. It completely startled us when he spoke.

"Well, I see you two are closer than ever." He said with a smirk.

We both jumped up from our spot in the dirt (more like mud), and greeted him with flying hugs…. Literally. I practically glomped the man. My feet weren't on the ground, I had my arms wrapped around his neck and I was holding myself up like that, all the while Ashley was almost literally 'rofl-ing' at the blush on Leon's face.

"Oh my gosh Leon, we were so worried about you!"

He gently set me down and nervously chuckled. "I can see that…"

When I noticed how red his face was, I felt like laughing too, but I didn't since it probably would have wounded his pride or something.

We reached the door and Ashley and I both looked up and Leon expectantly.

"Leon, I thought it was a retinal scanner," Ashley said. "How are you going to open it?"

"With this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out what somewhat like an-

"Is that an _eyeball?_" Ashley shouted.

"Yeah, the guy had a false eye… I figured that this was the key to the door."

"So you just took the liberty of putting your fingers into his socket and taking it out? That's disgusting beyond belief!" I couldn't help but loudly snort at her last comment.

"What? No, it just fell out!" Leon defending himself like that was pretty funny, too.

"But it was still in his head, Leon! And you're _touching_ it!"

"But I-"

"Oh for God's sake…" I reached up and snatched the fake eye from Leon's hand and held it in front of Ashley. "Touch it."

"W-what?"

"You heard me; I said 'touch it'."

"But it's an _eye!_" She whined.

"Ashley, it's glass. It's not squishy or anything and it's barely even slimy anymore."

She narrowed her eyes and stared at the thing. I could tell she wanted to touch it, she wanted to _badly_. Slowly, she stuck her arm out, index finger pointed, and felt the cool glass that was in my hand. When she touched it, she whimpered softly and I rolled my eyes. She retracted quickly and wiped her finger on her shirt.

"T-there."

I sighed and handed the eye back to Leon. He chuckled and held it up to the scanner, and the doors opened.

We were standing on a road that slants uphill, and there were two Ganados standing at the top of it. Leon pulled out his trusty rifle and shot their heads clean off, receiving high-fives from me and Ashley. Once we began walking, there was the loud sound of a car horn and we looked up incredulously to see a truck speeding down the hill, headed straight for us. And of course, there was a dead end, so we had nowhere to run.

"What are we going to do?" I shouted over the noise of the horn.

Leon quickly rose up the rifle and shot the driver, making the car crash right in front of us.

"Well… I guess that works…"

Leon smiled and shook his head at me again, and we began walking up the road.

Right after we passed the crashed truck, a dozen of villagers crawled out of the back of it and began running towards us. We all pulled out our guns and began shooting people's heads off. Well, Leon and I did anyway. Ashley's aim was a little better, but not as good as ours, so she stuck with shooting them in the chest. Once everyone was dead, Ashley turned to me and gaped.

"May I help you…?" I questioned.

"How do you aim so good? I _suck!"_

Leon and I laughed. "I don't know… it kind of comes naturally I guess."

She let it go with a "Hmph…", but we could still tell she was curious about it.

With another glance behind us, we turned and began walking up the road. There was a castle on the other side of a bridge, believe it or not. I guessed that's where we were headed.

Suddenly, _hundreds_ of villagers came through the door from before and began running up the hill towards us.

"To the other side of the bridge!" Leon shouted.

Ashley and I nodded and we all bolted for the bridge. I had never run so fast in my life.

When we were on the other side, there were two cranks. "You girls take that one!" Leon directed.

"Okay." We said in unison. We grabbed the handle and began pushing forward and turning the crank. It hurt like _hell_. The thing probably hadn't been used for _ages_, it was rusty, and it took almost our entire upper-body strengths combined to get the thing turning. Once we did though, the bridge began slowly rising, and eventually, it was all the way up.

We all stood there breathlessly, as we examined the bridge. We couldn't hear the villagers anymore, so we assumed they had given up and left.

"Come on." Leon said. And we entered the castle.

_Oh my goshhhh FINALLY!_ _I'm soooo suppeerr excited that I finally got this up lol. And once again, sorry for the long wait, I just had a lot to do. Wow.. this is my longest chapter yet… *squeal*! Heh.. anyway… Did you think Leon and Ash were too OOC in this chap? I hope not… Ashley might have been a bit though, but oh well. I think it all turned out well. So, please review and tell me what you think!_

_(And like always, sorry if there are a lot of typos, like I said in the last chapter, I usually don't __**actually**__ edit it until the next day because I'm just so super stoked to get it uploaded. Lol)_


	7. Fiery Balls of Death

_Gah, okay. I'm not going to waste your time by apologizing a million times over for not updating for over a month. Just read, enjoy, and if you feel so kindly to do so, review :D_

We were standing in a huge, square room that had trees and a little shack with a blue torch in front of it. Well, this wasn't even really a room; there was no roof. We all walked in to the shack and the Merchant politely greeted us with his famous _'Welcome!'_. But I, however, was too exhausted to use my British accent.

Ashley and I sat on the dirt floor while Leon sold weapons and bought new ones for twice as much as they should be. I closed my eyes and fought to stay awake until I heard Leon ask, "What's this?"

I turned my head to him and the Merchant and saw a shiny, silver, _very_ familiar looking gun in his hands.

"Ah…" The Merchant said. "That's one of the finest pistols I have in stock. It's name's the _Blacktail_ and-"

He didn't need to say anymore. "_What?"_ I quickly jumped up from my spot on the ground, shocking everyone, and snatched the Blacktail out of Leon's hands.

"Woah! Easy! Be careful with that thing!" Leon shouted, afraid that I would be careless enough to shoot the gun in my surprising outburst. How rude.

"I-I'm sorry. It's just that this is the _Blacktail!_ I've wanted one of these since I was like twelve!"

Leon, still confused (which was surprisingly cute, mind you), began to say, "Wait, _what-_"

"How much do you want for this? I'll pay anything!"

The kind man chuckled and said, "That there is twenty-four thousand."

I gaped at the man. All I had was about eighteen. I turned to Leon; I hadn't used my puppy dog eyes in a while…

I put on my best sad face (Well, I didn't really have to, I was already sad.) and looked up at the agent through my batting eyelashes. "L-Leon…?"

He looked at me and sighed. "Nope. Nuh-uh. I'm sorry, but I'm putting my foot down on this one."

My eyes grew wide. "W-what?" It's not like I was used to getting what I wanted or anything, because it was the _complete_ opposite, I just _really _wanted that gun- more than anything! How could he just say no?

"You heard me." He said. "If you want this gun, you're going to have to save up yourself."

"But Leon, if I did that, I would feel like I was stealing from you. You're the one who always finds all the Spinels and everything! How am I supposed to save up?"

"Loot off all the people you kill."

"I-…" Did he really just say that? "Leon, that's stealing."

He laughed. "What, and you think taking everything else isn't?"

"Yeah but that's different! And who would even want to touch those things after they're dead, anyways?"

Apparently, Ashley had been listening in on our little conversation. "You don't have to touch them; they just disintegrate into the ground." She stated.

"See? There you go. Problem solved."

"But, _Leon_-" I whined.

"No. You can't just keep cheating your way through life by using your looks and your little puppy-dog face forever."

"M-My looks?"

He ignored me. "Come on, let's go."

_My __**looks**__?_ I thought. I had never really thought I was ugly, but I sure as hell didn't think someone as hot as _Leon_ would pay any attention to how _I_ looked.

I turned to Ashley with wide eyes and mouthed the words _'My looks?'_ to her. She gave me a huge grin and two thumbs up. While I was trying to re-gather myself, Leon turned around and waiting for us expectantly. "You girls coming or what?"

The blush on my face was obvious as I walked passed him.

We walked through a door and were surrounded by stone. Everything around us was a depressing, gray color. We took a few steps forward and then-

"_Morir es vivir… Morir es vivir…"_

I froze in my tracks, turning deathly pale, my eyes wide.

"Hey, what is it?" "What's wrong?" Ashley and Leon asked me in unison.

To them, those words meant nothing, but after taking 4 years of Spanish…

"_Muere… Muere... Muere…" _

I squeezed my eyes shut and whimpered.

"Emily, what are they saying?" Leon asked me, in a stern, yet comforting voice.

I took a deep breath, inhaling the dirty air around us. "T-to die is to live…"

"_Muere… Muere… Muere…"_ Came more chanting.

I shut my eyes tighter, so tight I was beginning to see patterns on the back of my eyelids. "Die… Die… Die…" I translated in a shaky voice.

"Shh…" Leon whispered. "It's okay… I won't let them hurt us."

I nodded and took another deep breath, regaining my courage.

"Wait here." Leon said, as he rounded a corner up ahead.

I turned to the blonde beside me. "You must think I'm the biggest baby on the planet, huh? I can't even hear a few words coming from those people without freaking out." I attempted a laugh.

"No… Actually, I think you're really brave. I wouldn't even be able to _live_ if…" She trailed off, thankfully. I didn't want to think about… you-know-who at the time… And it wasn't Voldemort.

"Yeah…"

Two loud gun-shots were heard (judging by the sound, it was probably the rifle), and Leon came trotting back around the corner.

"There were two of those things up there." Leon explained. "You girls stay close, just in case there's more."

We both nodded and followed Leon as we rounded a corner and walked up short, winding, stone stairs. The agent held up his hand, signaling us to wait, and I leaned up against the wall beside us and waited for him to come back from doing his thing. Leon took two steps out into the open area when suddenly-

"_Aii esta… Mátelo!" _

There were the sounds of explosion and fire was visible from around the corner.

"Leon!" Ashley and I screamed.

When he didn't respond, I took my gun out from its place on the holster and checked to see if it had ammo in it: fully loaded.

"Ashley, you stay here."

She grabbed my arm. "But wait, he said to stay here."

"Ashley, he could be dead out there, or very close to it. I need to go see if he's alright." I checked my belt. "_Shit!_ Do you have any first aid sprays?" The blonde shook her head. I sighed. "I know Leon does. I'll just use those."

"What if they're damaged?"

"… I'll be back soon." I tossed her a box of ammo. "Here. Only use it if you need to."

She nodded and took out her gun.

It felt weird being the one in charge. I was so used to Leon always telling me what to do. It was different… and it didn't feel right seeing as she was so much older than me.

I took a deep breath and popped my head around the corner. I didn't see anybody, just some dude in a red cloak and some sort of goat mask or something standing up on a higher level. Leon was nowhere in sight. I glanced back up at the cloaked man and noticed a red barrel sitting next to him. Narrowing my eyes, I raised my gun up and concentrated. I concentrated on the wind, the sound of my heart beating in my chest, and blocked out all outside thoughts. I pulled the trigger and it hit the barrel dead on. Fire flew everywhere and the cloaked man collapsed to the floor after being engulfed in flames. I did a little victory dance in my head before bolting straight out into the open.

I got about halfway to the entry way across the room when I glanced to my left for a split second; Leon was standing in an arch-way reloading his gun.

I did a double take. "Leon?"

He looked at me, and then above me and his eyes grew wide. "Move!"

Not understanding why he said that, I turned around and looked up. There was a giant ball of flames headed right for me.

The next thing I knew, my legs were moving on their own. I was running faster than I had ever run in my life, but it wasn't fast enough. Right before the fire hit me, I did a super-amazing summersault dive. As soon as my face was about to meet the ground, I tucked and rolled into the arch-way that Leon was standing in, and as far as I was concerned, into safety.

I stood up and dusted my shirt off. "Woo! Did you _see_ that? I _knew_ those few months of gymnastics would pay off!"

Leon chuckled, and then pointed at my leg. "You scraped your leg, though."

My adrenaline was pumping so fast at the moment, I couldn't have cared less. "Yes, but Leon, it's better than being engulfed in a fiery death."

He shrugged. "Where's Ashley?"

"Over there by the stairs. We thought you were dead so-"

"Well _thanks_. You really don't have much faith in me do you?"

"Leon, if I didn't have any faith in you, I wouldn't have trusted you with my life and followed you all the way here, now would I?"

He laughed. "Yeah, I guess not."

I smirked at him in a sort of '_I told you so_' kind of way. "Kay, so what do we do now?"

"Hmm… well, I guess we could slip by that guy quick enough to get over there." He pointed to the other arch-way that led to a square section with what looked like stairs that led to an upper level.

"Well, what about Ashley?"

"Right… they'd fire at her at her if she tried to come over here."

"But doesn't Saddler want her alive? He'd be pretty pissed if she was killed."

"True…"

"… _ASHLEY!"_ I yelled in her direction and Leon quickly wrapped his left arm around my rib cage, holding my back against his chest and used his right to cover my mouth.

"Do you want to get us killed?"

I shoved his hand away and tried to look at him, which was pretty hard considering the position we were in. "It's not like those freaks know what I'm saying."

"But it's still a sound and that's what sets them off."

I laughed. "Leon, they're not toys in a Toys-R-Us or something. And plus, we're talking. Isn't that sound?"

"No... We're talking softly enough so that they can't hear us."

"Uh… should I come back later…?" Ashley was standing right beside us in the arch-way, with a huge blush on her face.

"Yes." "No." Leon and I said in unison, except I was the one who said yes this time. Leon quickly let me go and I was left with this strange, wandering feeling.

Ashley burst out laughing at our disagreement, and Leon looked at me with a look on his face that said _'Really?'_ I stuck my tongue out at him and he rolled his eyes.

We all walked up the first set of stairs and stood in the corner of the platform that comes before the second set of stairs. Leon turned to Ashley and I and spoke in a stern voice.

"Stay… here…" Call me crazy, but it felt like that was mostly directed to me.

Once again, as soon as Leon stepped out from our hiding place, fiery balls of death were thrown at our rescuer. I had to physically resist the urge to go help him. It was horrible. My heart was racing a million beats per second. I was scared he wouldn't dodge in time, and he would be crushed and burned to death.

But he always did. I mean, he was Leon Scott Kennedy for Pete's sake. He could do practically anything. I smiled, thinking to myself how awesome he was. He could have been Chuck Norris' son. Oh boy… time for the jokes.

_Jesus walks on water, Leon S. Kennedy swims through land. _I thought.

_Leon S. Kennedy can make lemonade out of oranges._

_When doing pushups, Leon isn't pushing himself up – he's pushing the Earth down._

_Fear of spiders is called arachnophobia, fear of tight spaces is claustrophobia, fear of Leon S. Kennedy is called Logic. _

_Leon S. Kennedy can make a woman climax by simply pointing at her and saying "Booya."_

I couldn't stop myself from bursting out laughing at the last one, receiving a look from Ashley like she thought I was insane; which I probably was.

"No-… It's just…" I tried to explain, but I couldn't stop laughing.

"Okay…" She literally gave me a _'o.O' _face while saying that, making my laughing fit even worse.

"Girls!" Leon called from across a bridge. And how long had that cannon been there?

I quickly pulled myself together and we both ran to where the agent was standing.

"Okay, I'm about to fire this thing and blow down that door. I want you girls over here just in case I miss."

We nodded and stood behind him. A split second later, there was an ear-shattering _Boom!_ followed by a crashing sound. Ashley and I looked up from covering out ears to find that Leon had blasted open the front gate.

"I'm sure the owner of this dump won't be too pleased to find out that you blasted his door down with some rusty old cannon. You could have just knocked."

Leon rolled his eyes at me and we all began walking over to the gaping hole in the stone wall.

"Merchant!" I shouted and ran up to the familiar cloaked man as soon as we had turned the corner. "Wait-" I stopped dead in my tracks, obviously not as excited as I was two seconds ago. "There was a freaking _Merchant_ here the whole time? What the hell man?"

I didn't really know which 'man' I was referring too, and apparently neither did Ashley. "Umm… Which 'man' are you talking to…?"

I thought for a second. "Both." I walked up to the Merchant and stood in front of him, giving him one of my famous glares. "_You _could have let us in you know."

The masked man chuckled. "If only you'd knocked."

My eyes grew wide and I turned to the blonde man behind me. "_See!_ I _told_ you! He would have let us in!"

Once again, Leon rolled his eyes – a move that I was beginning to get tired of. I ran up to him and slapped his arm, harder than I did the last time.

"Um… _ow?_ What was that for?"

"You could have killed the Merchant! Then what were you going to do, huh? How would you have gotten more guns and upgrades for said guns?"

He didn't say anything, just stared at me like I had sprouted a Plagas head or something. Speaking of which when would I start coughing up blood? Not that I was looking forward to it, but Leon did back at the lake, and Ashley had to have been; she was injected before him, and I wasn't injected very much later than that…

"Come on, let's go." Leon said, after he finished his trading with the Merchant.

As soon as we stepped through door way to our left, Leon's transmitter went off.

"Leon, where's your current location?" A voice that I recognized as the one and only Ingrid Hunnigan spoke.

"We decided to lay low in a castle, but it looks like it was a bad move." He informed the woman whom I was still angry with.

"Meaning?"

"Well, it appears that this castle's also connected with the Los Illuminados. They must not get many visitors here, 'cause they're giving us one hell of a welcome." He explained.

"Sounds bad. I have an idea Leon, I need you to-" She cut off abruptly.

"What? Repeat Hunnigan…" When he didn't get a response, he shook the device, trying to get a better signal I guessed, but to no avail. "Great, Just my luck…"

"What happened?" I asked.

"The transmission got cut off…" Leon said in a dark tone as he put the device back in its place.

"Is that bad?" Ashley asked.

"Well, it definitely isn't good."

Before anyone could say anything else, my eyes had already begun to absorb everything in the room.

It was square and made of white stone – maybe marble, with a table in the middle of it with what looked like worn out diaries and a box of shotgun shells on it. There was a staircase to the left, and in the corner there was a sword made of platinum placed in a golden frame.

"Leon," Said man looked over at me. "Why is there a silver sword in a gold case?"

"How should I know?" He replied as if my confusion meant nothing.

"Hmph." I said and crossed my arms, eyeing the mysterious sword. For some reason, it really ticked me off. But maybe that was just my OCD coming into play.

Ashley and I stood in place while Leon went upstairs and did his thing. As soon as he stepped off the top step though, there were the sounds of gunshots and Leon making his super awesome "_Hiya!" _sound as he kicked a zealot in the face. We knew he didn't need our help. From the sounds of it, there were only two or three of them up there-

And then the door we came through opened and in came about twelve of those freaks all at once. It completely caught us off guard, and one of the creepy men grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder, and began walking away with me back to the door.

"_OH MY GOD- Leon!" _I shouted as loud as I possibly could. Good thing the agent was already half way down the stairs at this time, because before the guy could leave with me, Leon shot his legs and we both fell down to the cool, marble floor. Good thing I had that cloaked freak to break my fall.

I stood up and dusted myself off. Looking up at Leon, I smiled and said, "Thanks, I owe you one."

He scoffed. "Yeah, more like thirty."

I laughed loudly and continued shooting the men. After a while, everyone stopped emerging from the rusty door and things were quiet again. Well, as quite as they could be with me in the room.

"I just don't get why-"

"Emily, would you just drop it? It's not important!"

"Well, _excuse me_ for having OCD! It just bothers me!"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you have to complain every five seconds!"

"GIRLS!" Leon shouted suddenly, ending mine and Ashley's little spat. "Will you please stop fighting for one second?"

"She started it!" I whined, pointing to the tall blonde beside me. Neither she, nor Leon looked too pleased about my protesting. Leon sighed and Ashley rolled her eyes.

"Fine. I'll shut up. If…" I trailed off.

"If?" Ashley pushed.

I put on a serious face for a second. "Be right back."

I quickly turned around and dashed down the stone stairs making little _pitter-patter_ noises as I went. As soon as I rounded the corner I headed straight for the sword and grabbed it off its spot on the wall. It was heavier than I thought, but nothing too crazy.

"You okay down there?" I heard Leon yell.

"Ye-yeah! I'm fine! It's just… _really_ heavy." I struggled with the sword while walking up the steps, and Leon quickly came to the rescue. Thirty-one.

"What on Earth are you doing?" Leon stared at me as I un-mounted a second sword on the top floor (this one was gold in a platinum case) and replaced it with the first.

"You'll see!" I carefully walked with it back down the steps.

It could have been just my imagination, but I could have sworn I heard Leon laugh and say "What am I going to do with this girl?" which didn't help with my severe blushing issues.

When I placed the golden sword in the empty spot, the sound of something heavy scraping across the floor filled the room. I quickly ran upstairs and stood dumbfounded, looking at the newly exposed door.

"Huh." I said. "So it looks like my insanity actually helped for once… Ermm… How about a 'Thank you Emily for all your hard work? Those swords were really heavy, you know."

Leon laughed. "You know, it isn't that we wanted you to shut up or anything it's just… I have a headache, you know?"

"Hmm." I walked up to Leon, and when standing _right_ in front of him, stood on my toes and pressed my hand against his forehead. The heat was almost over whelming. "Leon… y-you're _really_ hot…"

"Uh… thanks?" He said with the biggest smirk on his face I had ever seen.

I quickly stepped down and retracted my hand. "N-no that's-"

He laughed and Ashley full out guffawed. "I know." He looked down at me and tousled my hair, making the redness in my face grow even deeper. I stuck my tongue out at him quickly, and then we all stepped through the rusty door.

It was dark outside, and the stars were shining brightly above our heads.

"I've never seen so many stars before…" Ashley whispered in wonder.

I was too speechless to say anything, and before Leon could we heard the door we had just come through open. We all quickly took our eyes off of the night sky and turned to see who the intruder was.

"Leon!" A Hispanic voice called.

"Luis?" Leon asked in confusion.

"I've got something for you guys…" Luis quickly rushed up to us and began patting himself down, looking for something. "Wha-… Oh _shit!_ I must have dropped it when I was running away from them!"

"Dropped what?" Ashley asked.

"A drug that will stop your convulsions!" _Stop our what…?_ I thought. We all looked at him like he was crazy and he continued. "Look, I know you're carriers. You've been coughing up blood, right?"

"…Yeah." Leon answered truthfully, glancing over at me. I gave him a sad look and we looked back at the Spaniard.

"And you?" He asked the President's daughter.

"Yes."

"And what about you, Emily?" He turned to me.

"Well… no. I haven't yet…." I answered, and then continued when I remembered what he had told me back in that room I was trapped in. "But didn't you say-"

"Yes. We don't have much time." He turned around and began walking back to the door.

"Let me come with you!" I offered, running after him.

"No. You stay here with Leon. You told me how fond you were of him, anyways." My eyes grew wide. I didn't dare look back at the tall blonde man standing a few feet behind me.

I returned to the original topic. "But Luis, you're all alone, it wouldn't be fair. I have a gun, I can help you!"

"Look, Emily. I know you want to help, but I really need to do this on my own. Please, try to understand that."

He looked at me with such care in his eyes. How could I say no?

"Okay…"

I stood still and looked down at the ground. It was stone, duh, the whole castle was. But this time, it had suddenly become very interesting.

Leon and Ashley had both stepped forward when he had begun walking away, so that they were both standing behind me now. One of their hands were rested on my left shoulder as an act of comfort, though I couldn't determine who until he said, "Why are you-"

"It makes me feel better. Let's just leave it at that."

And just like that, Luis Sera was gone.

_Okay, don't yell at me. I HAD to end it here otherwise this chapter would have been like 4x longer than what it usually is and I didn't really feel like making you wait even more. But don't worry, I WILL be writing tonight until I pass out lol. But yeeaahhh.. Please review! :D_


	8. Wolverine Man

_Yes, it's been about two months, I realize that. It just took me __**forever**__ to figure out how to start this chapter. I still don't think it's all that good, but meh. And I also went back and re-read all of the reviews you guys have left me, that made me very happy ^^ *hugglez* Anyways… Enjoy! :D_

_I know, I know… excuses... excuses… _

"What was that about?" Ashley finally asked, breaking the almost-unbearable, everlasting silence.

"I have _no_ idea." Leon replied.

"Yeah, well…" I said. "I just can't wait until he gets back with that drug. I want to get this thing out of me as soon as I can."

They both nodded. "Don't we all."

I turned around and once again noticed the orange-ish, rust-stained door. "Leon, what's back there?"

He turned around and began walking to it. When he slowly pushed it open, you could see a cloaked man standing in the center of the room. Just then, the thing turned his head and noticed the very handsome man standing in his doorway, and went to go tell his friends about it.

"Wait here." Leon said to Ashley and I. We nodded and stood there, awkwardly, trying to think of something to say.

"So…" I said first. "Do you think you've gotten the hang of shooting your gun?"

The blonde pulled out her gun and began examining it carefully. "I don't know. I think Leon might have to show me how to work it. If we ever get the time, that is."

Suddenly, the image of Leon with his tight, muscular arms wrapped around hers, and holding the gun in her hands flashed in my mind. "Wha- Uh, n-no you don't. Er.. he doesn't. Um… I could show you!" I failed miserably at forming my sentence. Ashley didn't really seem to notice though.

"Really?" Her face lit up in a smile.

"Sure! Look, all you have to do is-"

"Hey, I got the key to this door." Leon interrupted, holding a silver key in his hand.

"Leon!" Ashley exclaimed, running up to him. "Do you think you could show me how to work this gun properly?"

Said man chuckled. "Yeah, sure. So you hold it like this…" Just then he wrapped his arms around her and my vision came true. I was filled with an enraging envy, so strong, that I was almost positive my face was turning green. All I could do was stare at the two as Ashley pretended to be clueless, while really, she just wanted to spend more time wrapped in Leon's embrace. I knew what she was up to. (I was probably just over-thinking the situation at the time, but could you blame me?)

I rushed up to the two and snatched the key from Leon's hand and put it in the lock. "After you…" I said sarcastically, looking at the tall blonde man. He seemed rather confused at my actions, but Ashley had this obvious blush on her face, because she knew I caught on to what she was doing.

When we stepped through the doors, I was literally awestruck. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life. The walls were stone, but not the dirty stone like the other parts of the castle- no, this stone was diamond white, like the kind statues are made from. The floors were a shiny marble that you could practically see your reflection in, and there was a red carpet going through the center of the room, leading to doors on the other side at _least_ 50 feet long. About half way through the room there was an archway and a balcony facing us on it. We continued walking forward, completely speechless, until Ashley finally spoke up.

"This is… amazing!"

"Tell me about it." Leon replied.

"Who knew there could be something so beautiful in a place so-" Just then I was interrupted by the laughter of what sounded like a child doped up of caffeine. "Um… what was that?"

We all eyed the room cautiously before continuing forward after a few moments of silence. But just when we were halfway to the balcony, we heard it again, but louder. I looked up at the balcony to see a little boy in a blue Victorian-age suit, laughing maniacally. There were two cloaked figures beside him; one was in a black cloak, the other in red. They both had glowing red eyes, and were twice as tall as the boy.

"Ehehahahahah!" Suddenly, he didn't look much like a boy, as he stepped fully out to the railing of the balcony. He actually looked pretty aged. "…I was starting to wonder when you might notice us." He said.

"Who are you?" Leon demanded, taking a slight step forward.

Without hesitation, the boy/man (I still wasn't quite sure) answered. "Me amo _Ramon Salazar, _the eighth castellan of this magnificent architecture." He seemed quite proud with this last statement. "I have been honored with the prodigious power from the great Lord Saddler… I've been expecting you my brethren's…"

_Brethren's? _I thought.

"No thanks, _bro!_" Our rescuer said, in quite a sarcastic tone, making Ashley giggle beside me.

"My, my, we've got a feisty one." He continued. "If you care for your own well-being, I suggest you surrender yourself and simply… become our hostage." My eyes grew wide, along with Ashley's, while Leon's took on a look of confusion. "Or Mr. Scott, you can give us the girls because you're not worth a penny I'm afraid… You can die." He then turned around and vanished behind the blue curtains. It was one of those _What the f*ck just happened?_ moments.

"I'm never turning into one of them, never!" Ashley spoke up.

"Got that right," Leon turned to her. "We'll find a cure."

"But how can you be so sure?" I pondered aloud. I knew it was probably a bad idea to say it, but someone had to ask. "What if there _isn't _a cure, Leon?"

He thought about this for a moment, before saying, "There has to be. Whatever Luis went looking for, that must be it. He said it would stop growth of this thing."

"Yeah." Ashley said, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. "We got ourselves into this, we can get ourselves out."

I smiled and nodded and we kept walking across the room. Suddenly, when we got to the archway in the middle, a wall rose up from the floor blocking our path. There was a blue rectangle with carvings of an animal and a big hole that looked as though something had to be placed in it.

"I wonder what this is for…" I said, inspecting the oddly shaped hole.

"I don't know," Leon said. "But we obviously can't go this way now. Come on."

We spotted a door to our right and decided to go through it.

This room wasn't as big as the one we were just in, I guess you could call that a lobby. No, it was about half the size of it. Everything was the ugly stone color again, and there were two pillars in the right side of the room, and on the left wall there were large round holes cut out, serving as windows to a lower area that I couldn't see too well. There was hallway at the end of the room, and a roaring noise was coming from it.

We all began walking forward, to the entryway, but I slowly stopped and took a look at my surroundings. "This place could use some cleaning." I stated.

Leon scoffed and said "With a place this big, I can't really blame that guy for not wanting to clean everything."

"But wouldn't he have a butler or a maid or something?" I asked.

"Yeah, maybe… but whoever it is, they need to be fired."

I laughed briefly before placing my hands on my hips, and standing in a sort of _I'm totally awesome_ pose. "I'm gonna have a castle like this one day. Except, you know… without all the freaky dudes."

"Don't you have to be royalty to have a castle?" Leon questioned, obviously not taking me seriously.

"Exactly!" I exclaimed excitedly. "One day I'm going to be a queen!"

The blonde man half laughed, half snorted. "Queen? Isn't that an inherited title?"

"Well... yeah, but…" I trailed off.

He laughed. "Didn't think that one out too much, did you?" I shook my head. "Well, unless your parents were King and Queen then-" He stopped mid-sentence, realizing what he had just said. "I-I'm sorry… I didn't mean-"

"No, it's fine." I sighed. "I guess it's time I tell you what happened, huh?" Suddenly, the wrinkles in my shirt became oh-so interesting.

"You don't have to-"

"No, I do… I keep bringing it up, and making excuses for it… you can't tell me you don't want to know what happened." I took his silence as a yes.

Just then, Ashley appeared from around the corner of the entryway. I hadn't even noticed she was gone.

"That way is blocked of by fire-breathing horses, but I found this key on a really big painting. I think it goes to that door." She held up a silver key. "Hey… what's wrong?" She approached the middle of the room with caution where Leon and I were standing.

"Nothing." Leon said quickly.

"It's not _nothing_." I argued, and when Ashley gave me a confused look I continued. "I was about to tell him what happened with my parents."

"O-oh… well, I can go if you want…"

"No. You need to hear this too."

_[Flashback__]_

_It was cold. That was the only thing going through my mind as my parents and I hiked through the woods on our once-a-year vacation to Europe. It was my turn to pick where we went, so I chose Spain. But boy, was that a mistake; it was about forty-fifty degrees every day. The only reason I had chosen Spain was because I spoke fluently in Spanish, even though my parents didn't. _

_I grunted as I tripped over a rock in the grass and face planted into the hard dirt. "Can we just go home?" I begged desperately._

_My father chuckled as he helped me up. "Hey, it was your idea to come here."_

_I dusted off my shirt. "I know, but did we have to go hiking? It's __so____cold."_

"_Well, then you should have worn pants." Scolded my mother, so I rolled my eyes. _

_Don't get me wrong, I loved my mom. She was one of the funniest people I knew, she just had this habit of picking out all the little things I did wrong. Take me wearing shorts on a hiking trip for example._

"_We've been out here for __hours__!" I complained again._

_My mom sighed and turned to my dad. "James, maybe she's right. It is getting pretty cold… maybe we should turn back."_

"_Alright…" He agreed, and we turned around and began walking back the way we came… or so we thought._

…

"_I thought you said you knew where to go?" My mother asked my father. _

"_Me? You're the one who said the hotel was __east__!"_

"_No, I said we've been walking east, the hotel was __west__!"_

"_S-so we're lost?" I panicked. _

"_No." "Yes." They answered at the same time. _

_My mother grunted in frustration. "Perfect, this is just perfect. We're over four-__thousand__ miles away from home, and we're lost!"_

"_Stay calm, Mary. We're going to get home. If we just keep walking straight, we're bound to find a road somewhere." _

"_But that could be miles from here, dad!" _

_He didn't really answer me, just grabbed the two extra bottles of water and gave them to my mother and I. Then he turned around and continued walking._

_About thirty-minutes later, more than half of my water was gone. I was suddenly reminded of that movie __The Blair Witch Project__ and immediately shook it out of my mind. That movie was proven fake; nothing like that could ever happen. Just then, we spotted four men standing on top of a slight hill. _

_My father sighed in relief. "Finally… Hey!" He shouted. "Hey, down here!"_

_All of the men turned to look at us, and then one of them raised their arm, pointing, and yelling the words "Un forastero!" Which I translated to "An outsider!"_

"_Uh… dad…" I tried to warn him, but he didn't listen to me._

"_Hey, fellas. We're kinda lost, so could you point us the way to the nearest town?" My oblivious father walked up to the men, as they were running down the hill towards us._

_When the men we're almost at the bottom, I stepped forward a tiny bit. __"Eh… __Lo siento…__Mi padre__no__hablaba nada de españo-…"_

_Just then, one of the men pulled out an axe and swung it, slashing my father across the face. Blood was dripping form the blade and my eyes grew wide. Did that really just happen?_

_I blinked hard and rubbed my eyes for a split second. When I opened them again, I saw my mother being thrown onto the ground, my father desperately trying to help her, while fending off more of the men. _

"_Mom!" I shouted, alerting the men. _

_Now one of them was coming at me with a pitchfork, while the other three were kicking and stabbing my parents. My brain didn't have time to fully process what was going on. I was scared. The two people in the world that I loved the most were getting the life beaten out of them, and I was next. When the man lunged at me, I quickly jumped out of the way. Then while he was distracted, I ran up behind him and kicked him in the back of the knees, knocking him down. _

_Next thing I knew, I had the pitchfork in my hands, and blood was everywhere. I began stabbing the life out of the men who had hurt my parents. _

_When all was done, I slowly walked up to where their bodies lay. _

"_M-mom… Dad…?" _

_It was silent, and I was almost positive they were both dead, until I heard a short gasp coming from my mother. I ran up to her quickly. __Her orange shirt was almost completely drenched in blood, and there were multiple holes in it, indicating she was stabbed several times. _

"_M-Mom…"_

_I heard you were supposed to apply pressure to wounds, but which one should I choose? I found the biggest one I could, and quickly pressed my hands desperately over the hole, but blood kept seeping out, through my fingers. I didn't know what to do. She was always the one to tend my cuts and scrapes; I never imagined I would be in any sort of situation like this. _

"_Mom… please…" But it was too late. Her body lay cold and stiff._

_[End flashback] _

Everyone was quiet. I guess they didn't know what to say to something so horrible like that. Breaking the silence, a small sniffle came from Ashley. Was she crying? If she was, I couldn't blame her. My eyes had begun to water as well, but tried my best to hold back my tears. I had cried enough that day, I didn't want to seem like any more of a wimp than I already was.

Suddenly, I felt someone's body wrap its self around mine: it was Leon. "It's okay…" he whispered while softly caressing the back of my head.

That pretty much did it. I was bawling into his chest, and most likely getting tear stains all over his shirt.

"H-how could they have been so defenseless…?" I sobbed. Leon didn't answer; he just made soothing noises, and kept comforting me.

Then, I felt Ashley join the hug too, as she wrapped her arms around the two of us. We stayed like that for a while.

…

"You found this key where exactly…?" I asked Ashley. We were standing in front of a blue door that was shut securely. Leon guessed that it was probably a prison, and who was I to argue with him? If it was a prison, though, it was rather small. It probably only held a few people.

"I already told you, in that room back there. It was hanging on some painting."

"That's a little odd." Leon stated and the blonde shrugged her shoulders. "You girls wait here."

"_Again?_" I complained.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" I knew better than to argue with him. His intuitions about things like that were usually right.

He put the key in the hole and the door quickly rose up, startling all three of us. Then, Leon began slowly descending down the stairs. To get a better view of the area, Ashley and I ran over to the windows/holes and peered over the side. The area was small, and there was a cage on the right wall. Looking further in, I saw what looked like a big man with-

"Are those _claws?_" Ashley gasped.

"Y-yeah… I think so…"

Leon slowly approached the bars of the cage holding the clawed man, when he turned to us and held a finger to his lips as a warning: DO NOT MAKE A SOUND. Ashley and I nodded in fear as he continued to timidly walk towards the cage door.

Suddenly the man burst out of his chains with a grunt, and I had to quickly cover my mouth to stifle a scream. As the prisoner walked slowly towards our rescuer, I noticed two things. One: There was this freakishly large _parasite_ looking thing on its back, and two: it looked as though he was _sniffing_ the air. He kept laughing manically, walking slowly across the room, and I couldn't help but wonder: _Why doesn't he just kill him?_ I leaned in through the window once again and gasped when I got a good look at his face; his eyes were sewn shut. I whispered my discovery to the blonde beside me and her eyes grew wide with excitement.

"Maybe we can help him!" Ashley whispered.

"How?"

"Well did you see how Leon shot that thing on its back when he was turned away?"

I nodded.

"Well maybe we can distract him long enough for Leon to shoot him again."

My face matched hers and I said "Ashley, you are a _genius!_"

Before she had time to say anything I was already shouting out the window. "_HEY JACKASS!"_

The thing turned in my direction, and Leon looked at me with shock and confusion written all over his face.

"Not you, that ugly thing!"

I don't know if it understood English, or was just looking for something to attack, but it automatically started running for the stairs. Leon took aim and fired around a hundred _TMP_ bullets into the parasite, and with a grunt, the thing fell to the floor.

When Leon returned, you could tell he didn't know whether to be proud, angry, or annoyed. Finally, he just laughed.

"That was a stupid thing you did there."

"It worked didn't it?"

Before he had time to answer, there was a shout coming from behind us. We quickly pulled out our guns and began shooting the three men who emerged from the hallway. One of them turned around and began running the other way.

"What's his deal?" I asked rhetorically and then followed him.

As soon as I rounded the corner, I saw the two horses Ashley mentioned, although they weren't '_breathing fire_'. There were three more men: two of them stood behind each horse head with a crossbow, and the other stood in the middle throwing—

"_Look out!"_ Leon quickly grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the way. I have to admit, it did hurt a little. But not as much as it would have if he didn't; the man was throwing _dynamite_, and it exploded right where I was standing.

"Jesus _Christ_… What the hell is his problem?" I said as Leon let go of me.

"You need to be more careful." He said sternly.

"Yeah, yeah…" I brushed him off and walked back to the room. As soon as he lighted the stick, I shot it, sending him and the other two monks flying. "_YES!"_

Ashley laughed and gave me a high-five, which I gladly returned.

"I _swear_ there was fire here before!" Ashley insisted.

"Yeah… There was a lever back there, I guess it turned it off."

"Well let's _go!_" I began marching forward towards the door in the back, and they followed.

The first words that escaped my mouth were "Oh shit…" There were people everywhere.

"_Matelo!" _There was a group of about eight or ten standing in the middle, heading straight towards us, while others were coming at us from out sides.

"Leon…" The panic in my voice was clear as I began slowly walking backwards, closer to him. Ashley did the same. Our puny handguns were no match for all these guys.

"You girls stand back." He said as he pulled out a Rocket Launcher…. Wait _WHAT?_

There was an explosion, and about three fourths of the people in the room were gone now.

"I… wha… _WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?_" My voice had become unnaturally high pitched.

The man chuckled as he replaced it with his shotgun. "Back in that shack when you asked for that Blacktail thing. You weren't even paying attention. I was actually surprised you jumped up for that and not the Rocket Launcher." He said as he was shot-gunning away.

Okay, I was officially confused now.

One by one (as sometimes two or three), the freaks slowly began dying and the room was finally empty. We had nowhere to go except down a little ramp, and once we did we found a small room. In the two corners in the back were big yellow stepping plates.

"What are those for?" Ashley asked, before I could.

"I don't know… You guys take this one and I'll stand on that one."

We did as we were told and at first nothing happened, but as we listened closer, we could hear the sounds of gears turning.

"… What did we just do?" I asked, only half expecting an answer, which I didn't get.

Ashley and I followed Leon out of the room and, to our surprise, sitting in the middle of the room was a lever. We all looked at each other, dumbstruck.

"… Well who's going to turn it?" They looked at me. "_Seriously?_ I have possibly the _worst_ upper body strength in the history of mankind!"

"That's not necessarily true." Ashley said.

"Whatever, I vote Leon. He has the biggest muscles I've ever seen."

Ashley blushed and looked down at her feet. I didn't realize what I had said until Leon smirked at me and said "Really?"

"I… uh… Well, yeah… I- I guess…" My cheeks flared red and Leon took hold of the handle and began turning it.

Not even a second later, we realized what it did; as soon as he started turning it, what we thought was a wall, slowly began descending down, and revealed itself as stairs to a higher floor.

Ashley and I quickly ran up said stairs and she pointed to something on a high platform, that I didn't see, I was focused on the door in the back of the room, and all the water in front of it.

"Look there's a crank over there!"

Then I looked over and saw a crank on the other side, too. "Maybe we can turn them…?" I suggested to Leon.

"Alright." He said. We walked over to one side of the room and he lifted Ashley up, then me on the other side. Oh God, it was the jumping thing all over again.

Once we were up on the platforms, we immediately began turning the cranks. About two seconds after I started turning, I looked up to see a cloaked freak right in front of my face. As soon as I screamed, his head exploded and my shirt was covered in even more blood. I looked down and saw Leon reloading his gun.

"Thanks!" I shouted, as I began turning the handle again.

"No problem!" He shouted back.

About two minutes later, the turning was over with, and we looked over to see that two platforms had risen up out of the water, big enough to jump across to reach the door. I ran up to the edge of the platform I was standing on and before I could, Ashley shouted "_Leon!_", who was currently fending off two guys with shields.

Once he killed them, he walked over to Ashley's side and she jumped down, into his arms, and he gently set her down. My eyes grew wide when he walked over to me and held his arms out.

"You-… you mean…?" My face was obviously red, which I was going to have to learn to control one of these days, and he just laughed.

"It's fine, Emily."

I took a deep breath, squeezed my eyes shut, and jumped. It felt like forever until I was in his arms, and once I opened my eyes, he was already setting me down.

I stood there, blinking, trying to remember what just happened. Great, I blanked out the _spilt second_ I was in the hottest guy on the planet's arms. That's something you should cherish, not not-remember.

"Did he hold you longer? I'm pretty sure he held you longer." Ashley whispered, thinking Leon couldn't hear her.

After a chuckle escaped his lips, I whispered _way_ softer, "I don't even remember what happened, to be honest."

She laughed and then Leon turned to us. "Well are you two going to keep standing there whispering about me, or can we keep going?"

Oops.

The blonde and I acted innocently as we rushed past him. We came up to the platforms and after Leon jumped across he held his arms out for me with a- and maybe I was over thinking this- an annoyed, look on his face, as if to say _Here we go again_.

"U-um… I think I can do it by myself, Leon…"

He nodded and stood back. I took a deep breath, and a few steps back before taking a giant leap over to where he was standing. I landed safely, but he caught me by the arms just in case I fell. I looked up at him; it was like his piercing blue eyes were staring right into my soul or something. "Um… t-thanks." I attempted.

"No problem." He said, as he smiled and let go of me. I swear, this man had _no_ idea what he could do with just one look.

We walked through the two big doors and were, yet again, mesmerized by what we saw. This room was just about as beautiful as the first, but there were two giant, upside down statues hanging from the ceiling. I didn't really get the point of that. There was another long red carpet leading down to something I couldn't really see well from where we were standing.

We continued walking until we saw the merchant standing beside the entryway to a hallway. There wasn't a door at the end of it; the door was on the wall. Instead, there were six suspicious looked holes in the wall. I tried not to pay too much attention to them, and turned back to the masked man.

"So how much was that Blacktail, again?" I asked, completely interrupting his and Leon's bargain.

He chuckled. "Twenty-four thousand, Stranga."

I emptied my pockets; six Spinels, and about thirteen thousand pesetas. "_YES!_" I exclaimed. I had enough for the gun, plus a thousand left over. I threw everything I had at the man, including the extra thousand, and held out my hands pleading "Gimmie gimmie gimmie gimmie gimmie gimmie…"

My two companions watched me with curiosity. "Here ya go, Stranga…" He gently placed them in my hands, and I gaped at it in awe… for about a second.

"_OH MY GOD I FINALLY HAVE IT!_" I was literally jumping up and down in place. Without thinking, I threw my arms around the first person I saw, which was Ashley. They both laughed.

"Is that gun really that great?" Leon asked.

I quickly let go and turned to face him. "_That_ great? It's amazing! When fully upgraded, it has a reload speed of point-twenty-seven seconds!"

"Damn. That is a nice gun." He stated.

"I know right?"

After we sold my old gun, we continued walking down the hallway, and just as we were about to enter the door, I started coughing. There was this pain in my chest, it was completely unbearable. It was like coughing soothed it just a bit, but every cough made it burn even worse.

"Hey… you okay?" Leon asked me considerately.

I wasn't focusing on him; I was too distracted by the amount of blood in my hands. I never knew a person could cough up that much… my hands were drenched. Luis said the first sign of the parasite eggs was coughing up blood… Oh god.

My eyes grew wide. "Emily…?"

"_No!_" I don't know what came over me. I shoved Leon away and began sprinting forward. I don't know what I was running to or from, I was just running and it hurt.

"Emily, _wait!_" He shouted, but I kept running. Then all of the sudden spikes shot out of the floor and I stepped back just in time. I turned around and kept running, as more spikes shot up.

Finally, I reached the wall. My chest was aching and I just needed to breathe—

Then before I knew it, bars shot out from the holes in the wall, pinning me against it.

"Emily!"

"Oh my god, what's happening?" I shouted, just before the wall spun around, placing me in a new room.

"Don't worry; I'll get there as soon as I can!" I heard Leon shout from the other side.

"I-I'm sorry!" I shouted back, but I wasn't sure if he could hear me.

_Huzzah! I'm finally done! :D Now, I __**swear**__ I'll start the next one tomorrow! And yeah, I know.. we've heard that before… just bear with me on this one. Now, I have school tomorrow so I don't really have time to edit, but I'll do it tomorrow! So please review and tell me what you think! :D _


	9. Knights in Shining Armor

_Hiya! See, that wasn't a very long wait lol. It would have been sooner but some stuff happened and I just wasn't in the right mood to write… but I __**SWEAR **__I had half of this chapter written the day after I published chapter 8. I'm not even joking lol. And plus this chapter is super-duper long! :D Just remember: The more you guys review, the more encouraged I get to write, and the faster my updates are… So.. yeah. You should review a lot :P_

_I also need to stop reading so many fan-fics and actually work on mine xD_

It had been _hours_ since I last saw Leon. All I could think about was him and how I shoved him away like that… what was I thinking? All he wanted to do was comfort me, and I had to act like a five-year-old and run away from him. The parasite must have been messing with my brain, because no sane person would ever run away from someone as nice as him. That's just common sense.

I wished I could tell him how sorry I was— I wasn't sure if he had heard me the last time, but even if he did, I wanted to tell him in person. I didn't even know if he would find me… It never occurred to me until then that he might not be able to, and if he didn't what would happen? Would I be stuck here until I die, or would Salazar or Saddler come and take me away?

Before my thoughts could go any farther, I heard a door from the upper floor open. Well, it wasn't much of a 'floor', more like a balcony looking down onto the floor I was on. I couldn't see who it was from the angle it was at (exactly to the left of me), but I could hear soft footsteps. I stayed quiet and still. There was a chance it could be Leon, but an even higher chance it was one of Salazar's little minion freaks.

Suddenly, the door opened again and I heard a voice, thick with a Hispanic accent, and I knew immediately who it was.

He said, "Leon," So Leon _was_ there!

I opened my mouth to yell out, and let him know I was down there, but Luis interrupted me. "I got it!" Suddenly all motion stopped. Confused, I listened more carefully for what was going on and then I heard Luis screaming in pain.

My eyes grew wide. Did Leon hurt him?

My question was quickly answered when the agent shouted "Luis!" as if he wanted to help, but he couldn't.

Out came more cries of pain, and just when I thought I couldn't take any more of it, there was a loud thump, and then a thick, creepy voice said "Now that I have the Sample, you serve me no purpose." It was Saddler.

My eyes were even wider now (if that was even possible) and I was filled with an outrageous amount of fury. Leon wasn't too pleased about this either. "Saddler!" He shouted.

"My boy, Salazar, will make sure _you_ follow the same fate!" Saddler said and, from the sounds of it, left.

I couldn't hear much more after that. I hung my head as a very few amount of tears slid down my cheeks. I was actually surprised I could still cry after all that's happened.

A few minutes later, Leon walked in my view and I quickly shouted his name to make sure he saw me.

As soon as he looked down, he shouted back. "Don't move!"

I obeyed as he pulled out his rifle and began shooting the bars off. To my absolute surprise, they broke and after three shots I was freed.

"You better watch where you aim that thing, Leon." I said with a small wink that I wasn't sure if he could see.

The man just stood there smiling, and I smiled back. I could tell he was glad that I was okay. I could see Ashley standing off to the side by the door, but she looked rather sad and depressed, and, even though I knew, I didn't want to think about why.

Before anybody could say anything else, a door to my right opened and out came a group of the cloaked freaks.

"I got it!" I shouted to Leon and pulled out my gun. I aimed for the closest guys face and- _click!_

"What the fuck?" I shook my gun as if it would solve the problem and pulled the trigger about eight more times; nothing.

"I'm out of ammo!" I hollered to the man above me.

"Shit… alright! I'll cover you, just stay back!"

I did as I was told, and every time one of them got too close, Leon would shoot their head off. Eventually they were all gone and I ran for the nearest door, which happened to be locked.

"The door's locked, I can't open it!"

"I think the red one dropped a key!" He shouted back, and he was right. I ran over to where the guy in the red cloak was killed and there lay a shiny silver key.

"Kay, I got it!" I ran up to the door, unlocked it, and said "I'll try to find my way back… wait for me okay?"

"You got it." He said, and I opened the door.

…

The room was dark. All I could see was a faint light coming from the end of a hallway in front of me. I looked around for a table or something, when I saw a typewriter and something sitting next to it. I slowly walked up to it and saw a flashlight. I quickly snatched it up and turned it on, the light was bright, as if there were fresh batteries in it. There was a strap on it to place it on a belt, and that's exactly what I did. After doing a little mental happy dance, I proceeded down the hallway, and stopped when I saw someone standing in the room it lead to. Instinctively, I reached for my gun before realizing I had to bullets.

"_Aii esta…_" The thing said and it slowly began walking towards me.

I had nowhere to run. Turning around and heading back to Leon would be useless, so I just ran. I sprinted straight past the thing. I figured since they were usually slow I'd have no problem getting past him, and I didn't. I saw a few book cases and tables, and two of the tables had lanterns on them. My eyes grew wide and I suddenly got an idea. I ran over to the closest table that had a lantern on it, picked it up, and chucked it at the guy. The lamp immediately burst into flames and after it died out, he began dissolving into the floor as they usually do when they die.

"HAH!" I laughed, sticking my tongue out at the spot where the body once lay.

I turned back around and looked for a door. Instead, there were bars blocking the path to the next room, and a crank behind one of the tables. I casually hopped over said table and began turning the crank. It was hard to turn at first, but after I loosened it up a bit it took about fifteen more turns before the bars were completely raised off the floor. I hopped back over the table and was surprised when I saw another cloaked freak in the next room. Spotting another lantern on a table in the back of the room, I sprinted for it. He was down before he could even finish saying "_Mátelo!" _There were two more cranks on the walls and I hurried to turn them. One pulled back the vertical bars, and the other horizontal that was finished, I ran straight for the door in front of me.

"Great… more bars…" I said aloud to myself. There were bars covering every path to get to the door on the other side of the room. But beside all the bars, there were pillars with gaps in between them big enough for a person to fit through standing on a wall almost as tall as me. I figured I could climb up the wall and squeeze through them and I did. Once I was standing in the middle of the room, I noticed a square shaped stone placed on the mantel piece above the fireplace. Unaware of its purpose, I felt the urge to pull it off and keep it, something about the tablet felt important. I climbed the wall again and quickly left through the door.

This hallway was _dark_. I could barely see anywhere my flashlight wasn't pointed. Slowly, I crept forward, ready for anything to jump out and scare me as I rounded corner after corner. Finally, the last part of the hallway was lit well enough that I didn't need my flashlight, but the room it lead too was even darker than the hallway. I couldn't see much in it, just a few random suits of armor, and a little dais standing in the middle of room. On it were eight squares, and an empty slot in the middle. It kind of reminded me of those puzzles I could never figure out as a kid… that's where I got the idea to try and rearrange them.

Sighing and thinking I would never figure it out, I just started randomly moving the pieces around. I started with the middle left piece, and moved it to the center. Then, I moved the bottom left corner up, and followed order, moving them around clockwise. After I moved the pieces nine more times, I was shocked at what I saw; the puzzle was solved, and you could see an actual picture in it. That was the very first time I ever solved one of those. But there was still a piece missing.

I pulled out the stone tablet from my back pocket and looked at it: it was exactly the right size and shape, and looked like it would complete the picture. I placed it in the slot carefully, and suddenly a door on the wall in front of me rose up.

"… I DID IT!" I exclaimed, but then remembered I had no one to share my joy with. It still didn't wipe the smile off my face, though.

I walked through the doorway and shined my flashlight on everything in the room. There was no door, making me wonder what the point of making it so hard to get in there was, when suddenly I saw a flash. My flashlight was shining on something in the back of the room. I walked over to it and examined it carefully. There was the upper part of a knight suit sitting on top of a fireplace, with something shiny and circular embedded in its chest. It was about the size of my palm, and I carefully plucked it out, then nearly dropping it when I heard the door I had come through slam shut and the part of the wall the armor was leaning up against flipped around and revealed a blue and gold chest. I opened the chest and inside it was a blue piece of stone shaped like an animals hind legs, and a serpent for its tail.

As soon as I picked it up, the door rose again and I heard clanging coming from the next room. As I moved closer, it kept getting louder and louder. When I reached the door, I shined my flashlight into my room and saw that the suits of armor were_ moving!_ They had somehow sprang to life, and were now walking towards me wielding axes as big as my face, on poles about as tall as me. Suddenly the closest one stopped and began raising this axe. I screamed loudly, and dropped my flashlight as I ran around them and back out into the hallway. I could hear them following me, and I kept running. Then I remembered seeing more suits of armor in the hallways and began sprinting even faster. Every time I passed one, I would jump out of the way just before it sliced me in half, and then crumpled to the floor. Finally I reached the room with the pillars. I jumped over the wall and through them in record time, before stopping dead in my tracks in front of the door; there was another suit or armor. I carefully backed up and stepped to the right, hopping it wouldn't sense me there, but it did. Right as it swung its axe down, I fell on my ass, sure to leave a bruise. Once the thing had crumpled, I bolted out of the door.

Back in the area after the room with the second zealot in it, I stopped to catch my breath. My heart was pounding. When I could finally breathe normal again, I noticed a blue door to my right that I hadn't seen before. I slowly prodded it open with my gun, ready to attack the next person who dared to try and mess with me. Even though it was empty, I figured I could still do some pretty serious damage if I hit someone upside the head with it.

There was no one in the room, only a large painting on the back wall and some sort of bird-bath-looking thing in front of it, with a pole coming out of its side. But as I got closer, I realized it wasn't a birdbath, it was another dais, this one circle shaped, and you used the bar to turn it. I took a closer look and saw a hole in the center about as big as my palm. Immediately after I placed the round insignia I had gotten from the top half of the armor, the wall with the painting rose up to reveal a ladder. After eagerly climbing up it, I bolted straight down the long hallway, running as fast as I could, hoping the next door I walked through would lead me to Leon.

I took two rights and a left before I came up to a door. Something about it just seemed… right. Like Leon would be waiting there for me after I opened it. I reached my hand up and turned the lock. I slowly pushed the door open and looked up; a blonde man was nervously pacing back and forth in front of me.

"Leon!" I exclaimed. I had so much excitement built up in me at that moment, I ran up and glomped the man. Not the kind where you fall to the floor, but I was hugging him tighter than I'd ever hugged anyone else before in my life.

He was laughing. "You did good…" he said as I buried my face in his chest.

I slowly pulled away after another second. "I'm… sorry for… well yeah…" I said, looking down at my shoes.

"Hey, don't worry about it."

"I was so worried about you!" Ashley ran up.

"Well there wasn't much to worry about." I smiled, and then continued. "Unless you count the giant suits of armor that kept trying to cut me in half… I'm not even joking." I said after seeing the confused looks on their faces.

Leon shook his head. "Well, come on. Let's move on." He said that with such a big smile on his face, it was hard not to smile back.

Then, suddenly his walkie-talkie thing went off. I thought that didn't work?

"Aww… what a touching moment we have here…" I heard Salazar speaking from the other end.

"All spoiled thanks to your interruption." Leon replied, making my face turn a deep shade of red. "Why don't you just do us all a favor and leave before the audience gets pissed off?"

The man on the other end laughed. "You're nothing but an extra in my script, so don't get too carried away. Your biggest scene is over."

"I don't ever remember being a part of your crappy script." Leon replied sarcastically. I was in awe at how awesome his comebacks were.

"Well then, why don't you show me what a first-class script is like; through your own actions." And with that, he hung up.

"What… the actual… fuck." I said. "Who the hell is that guy, anyway?"

"You were there. He owns this place." Leon said.

"Yeah but he thinks he's such a badass! Compared to a cat, maybe. But compared to you? He's gotta be smoking some pretty serious stuff."

Ashley full out guffawed and Leon shrugged. "You know, I'm not as awesome as you think I am." He said.

I scoffed. "You keep telling yourself that, cowboy." I said while patting his chest as I walked past him. Ashley followed me, still giggling, and Leon followed too, after a short laugh.

After stepping through the big, golden, double-doors, we all stared down in shock at the magma filled chasm below us.

"Wait here." Leon said after stepping on a _very_ small platform with giant wheels.

"Wait, you're actually going _across_ that thing? Are you insane?" I hollered.

"I have to agree with her on this one…" Ashley said.

"See? It's too dangerous, Leon."

"I'll be fine girls. Just stay here. I promise I'll come back."

"What have I told you about promising things like that?" We locked eyes for a second, before he sighed and looked away.

"Fine. I'll _try my best_ to come back, okay? If I'm not back in ten minutes, then you can come looking for me or whatever. But for now, just _stay here_."

Ashley and I nodded and a few seconds later, he was gone.

I turned to her tentatively. "S-so… what happened while I was gone?"

Her eyes got wide and she suddenly seemed to have enough energy for the both of us. "Oh my god, it was _so_ freaky! First there were these _BUG_ things, and then there were these big axe things swinging from the ceiling! Oh! And then after that, there was this huge freaky maze, and these dogs that had these weird _tentacle_ things coming out of their _backs!_" I laughed at her explanations. "Oh, and then there was this woman in a red dress—"

"Wait," I interrupted. "Who is this '_woman_'?"

Ashley rolled her eyes. "Well, if you wouldn't have interrupted me like that, I would have gotten to that part!" I motioned for her to continue. "Anyways, she was some Asian chick. She was all '_Leon… long time no see…'_ Like she was trying to seduce him or something. After that Leon tossed me a whole bunch of money and told me to go upgrade my gun. You will not be-_lieve_ the firepower on this thing now!"

"So you didn't even try to listen or anything?"

She snapped her head up in confusion. "What? No… why would I?"

I face-palmed. "Ashley, they could've been having _SEX_ for all you know!"

"Ew, gross! I don't want to think of Leon like that!" She complained.

"Ash, he's like twenty-something years old. He's had to've at least done it _once_."

She quickly plugged her ears. "Shh-shh-shh-shh-shh-shh-shhh… I can't _hear you."_

"… What, do you want me to say '_Aye, aye, Captain!'_ or something?"

She took her fingers out of her ears. "Just… don't say any more stuff like that. It makes me feel like a pervert or something…"

I laughed. "Hah. Okie dokie, then."

Just then, Leon emerged from the door on the other side of the chasm and made his way back to us. When he did, he chuckled and said, "See, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

I completely ignored what he said. "Are you a virgin?" I asked, nonchalantly.

It took him about two seconds before he fully processed what I had asked him. "… _What?_?" he yelled.

"Jeez, calm down. It was just a question." I said, rubbing my ear because it was _that_ loud.

"Wh-… _calm down?_ Y-you're only _seventeen!_ You shouldn't even be _thinking_ about this stuff right now!"

I laughed probably louder than necessary. "Are you kidding me? I know at least four pregnant girls in my grade alone!"

"That's not the point. Yo-you just shouldn't be asking that kind of stuff." He kept stuttering, and if I didn't know better, I would've said he was blushing too. "What on earth brought this up?"

Mine and Ashley's faces turned beet red and we began backing up, failing horribly at playing innocent. "Uh-um, _nothing!_ Nothing at all! D-don't worry about it…" We gave nervous laughs and ignored the 'what-the-hell' look he was giving us.

"…Uh huh…" He said. "Well… anyways… I found the Lion thing… Now all we need is the Serpent and we can get out of here."

Wait… Serpent? I quickly reached into my back pocket and pulled out the 'legs and snake tail' stone found back in the room with the knights and handed it to Leon. "Here you go."

"Where'd you find this?" He asked, astonished.

"Back in the room with the knights before they turned all alive and stuff." I said casually.

"Well, this is it then! Come on."

We all three walked to our left and stood in front of a strange, out of place trolley. It was blue and there were red-colored velvet seats on each side.

"Sh-should we get on?" Ashley asks, looking very tentative.

"I don't see why not." Leon says as he steps on and sits down. Ashley sits on the opposite side of him, leaving me with a huge dilemma; sit next to Leon, or sit next to Ashley? I decide to take the latter and avoid a lot of awkward silences.

As soon as the door shut, the trolley began moving. It wasn't very fast, but fast enough.

"So…" I said awkwardly. No one said anything. "You never answered my question, Leon." I said, remembering our earlier conversation.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Why do you want to know?"

"I dunno… just _curious_." I said in a sort of sing-song voice.

"Well frankly, I don't know if that's any of your business."

Ashley shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"Is that a no?" I asked, getting childish-ly excited.

"I'm not saying anything."

I turned to Ashley. "Hah! I told you!"

Ashley turned away, her face redder than mine has ever been, and Leon snapped his head up. "Wait, what?"

"Um… Nothing." I said.

Leon just sighed again. "I swear… the conversations you two have when I'm gone…"

I smiled. "_You know you love us…_" Another sing-song voice.

He just laughed and didn't deny it. Mine and Ashley's faces just about matched the color of the seats.

…

As soon as we stepped off the trolley, we headed straight for a familiar looking blue door. After unlocking and stepping to the other side, we realized it was the locked door in the lobby that we couldn't go through. We stepped up to the wall with the indents for the stones and carefully placed them. After the last one was in place, the wall rose up, and revealed two big doors that we took the liberty of entering.

There was another trolley ride in front of us, and I couldn't help but think about Salazar when he escaped through here a few hours ago. It didn't surprise me that the little guy ran off to ride roller-coasters right after we first met him. I could almost picture him giddy with excitement as he got on, the two giant robed monsters behind him sighing and rolling their horrible mutant eyes as it was the twelfth time that day they had to go through that.

I shook the random thoughts out of my head as the ride began moving. No one really said anything, I just kept stealing glances at Leon every now and then and when he would look back I'd blush and look away. God, it was like third-grade all over again.

The ride slowly came to a stop and we stepped out of the trolley. We exited the only door in the room, and looked around in curiosity. This room was decorated like a medieval castle (which I guess it was), and there were many different ways we could go. There was a door to our left, a long hallway with a door to the right, a door to our immediate right, and another long corridor straight ahead.

"Which way do we go first?" I asked.

"Straight?" Ashley suggested, and so we went.

We ended up in a long, drafty hallway with large open windows blowing in the cool breeze. I shivered, wishing I hadn't given up Leon's jacket back in the village. We walked to the doors at the end of the hallway, but there were bars in front of them. There were two statues of a man and woman on either side of the doors.

"What do we do now?" I asked as Leon examined the statues.

"A Toast to our Royal Majesty…" He read aloud.

"It says the same thing on this one." Ashley pointed out.

"What, do we have to find something to give to them or something?"

"I guess… Only one way to find out…" The agent said and we turned around and walked back.

We decided to go right this time, taking the long hallway with the door at the end, but as soon as I saw the knights lined up in rows on the side of a red carpet leading down the hallway, I screamed. Loud.

"What the hell?" Leon asked, frightened.

"I-I'm sorry… It's just... the knights…" I said the last two words in a barely audible whisper.

"They don't look very alive to me." Ashley smart-mouthed and I glared at her.

"Alright, calm down." Leon said. "I'll go first and we'll see what happens."

He began walking down the carpet and when he got to the third knight, it began moving, and swung its axe down right at the man, and he did a super-awesome back-summersault out of the way just in time. He continued walking and dodged the same way two more times, and then he motioned for us to follow him, assuming it was safe.

"That was so _awesome_!" Ashley and I exclaimed at the same time, making him grin.

"You have to teach me that!" I begged, and he laughed.

"Maybe if I have some time after we leave this hell-hole, I'll think about it."

"Awesome awesome awesome awesome _awesome!_" I said, with a _huge_ smile on my face.

We turned right and stopped in front of a doorway to a circular shaped room.

"You girls stay here." Leon said and we obeyed.

There was a fancy looking cup protected in a cage in the center of the room. As soon as Leon took it out, a door slammed down, blocking us from entering the room.

"Leon!" Ashley and I both shouted.

Suddenly, you could hear gears turning and next thing we knew, there were three knights moving towards Leon, weapons ready. Leon pulled out his _TMP_ and began shooting away at their heads, exposing a Plagas. Once all three heads were out he threw a flash grenade, killing them instantly. After another round of Plagas infected knights, the door rose once again and Leon passed safely to the other side. Well, as safe as one could be in this place.

"I _told_ you!" I shouted as we began walking back to the doors.

Leon rolled his eyes and Ashley waved her hand at me. "Yeah, yeah." She said.

When we got back into the main room, we took a right this time entering a golden door that was way too fancy for its purpose. The only things in that room were four pressure plates in the floor, a statue, and two other doors. One had no handle or anything, and the other was locked from the other side.

"What do we do?" I asked.

The agent thought for a second, then snapped his head up. "Emily, you stand on that plate… yeah like that. Ashley you stand on this one… And I'll move this here…" He pushed the statue onto one of the pressure plates and I shook my head once I caught myself staring at the way his muscles were flexed while doing so. Finally, after Leon stepped on the last plate, the door with no way of opening it rose up off the floor and we carefully entered it.

The little midget was standing in the middle of the room and in his annoying little voice said, "I think you've lived long enough…" Leon stepped forward in case Salazar was going to attack, but he didn't. "Let's see if you can survive this time…"

He threw his hand in the air and the door behind us slammed shut. My heart was racing. Then, the ceiling started lowering and _spikes_ shot out of it. It wasn't until then that I noticed the holes in the floor.

"_No!_" Ashley screamed in agony, realizing what was about to happen. I heard Salazar rush out of a door beside us, laughing as he scampered away.

I didn't know what to do. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Leon rush towards the door Salazar had escaped from, but it was no use; he had locked it behind him.

"I'm gonna get that bastard, I swear!" He shouted in fury.

Suddenly, I saw a red glint of light coming from one of the corners. Then I saw more in the other corners, too.

"Leon, look at the ceiling!" I shouted. He immediately caught on to what I was telling him, and shot all four lights, making the ceiling stop and the door Salazar escaped to open.

We were all breathing abnormally heavy and looking around at one another.

"I thought we were going to die…" Ashley whimpered.

"Me too." I added and Leon looked at the both of us.

"You girls shouldn't be saying stuff like that. We need to stay positive. I mean, we've made it this far, haven't we?"

We both nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Now come on. Let's keep going."

You could see the look of relief on his face as we were walking down a long, narrow hallway, making it obvious he thought the same thing we did.

Right when we got to the end of the hallway, and Leon walked through the doorway, bars shot down, locking Ashley and I in the hallway. Confused at first, we looked at each other, but then we heard the crash from behind us and screamed; two freaks were riding a big power drill, and driving it straight for us.

"Girls, get down!" He shouted and we obeyed. Two rifle shots later, the two men were dead and the bars were raised.

We carefully stepped into the room and Leon began checking for injuries, even though the thing came nowhere near us. "We're _fine_, Leon." We both kept insisting, but he still checked anyways, making us both blush furiously. But maybe that was his plan.

…

"What's the point of this?" I asked once we were standing back in front of the statues of a king and queen with each of the Holy Grails.

"I dunno. Maybe once we give these cups to them, they'll be nice enough to let us through these doors." Leon suggested.

"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard." I said, and he rolled his eyes. "I'm serious, that sounds like something _I_ would say. I don't think that's such a good thing, Leon."

He laughed. "I guess you're just starting to rub off on me." I blushed and looked away, catching a glimpse of Ashley giggling to herself.

Once Leon placed both the cups in their places, there was a brief delay before the bars finally rose up and I stared in disbelief.

"Told ya'." Leon smirked as he opened the doors.

After walking down another long, breezy corridor, we entered two more doors and took in our surroundings. Almost half the floor in the room was gone, only leaving room to walk down a bridge type path to the other side. There were high windows at the top of the room, and a bridge raised up on the left wall.

We began walking forward, and when we got to the middle of the bridge I said "This is really creepy-"

Unfortunately, I didn't get to finish the rest of my sentence, because to giant _bugs _had swooped down, picked Ashley and I up, and began flying away.

"_OH MY GOD, LEON!_" Ashley and I shouted at the top of our lungs as we were being flown away. We just barely heard Leon shout _Dammit!_ Before we were out of the castle.

"This is so _fucking_ gross!" I shouted to Ashley who was kicking and whimpering beside me.

"It's useless, Ash. They're probably just taking us to that midget freak or something."

"What if he kills us?" She asked, in a panic.

"Didn't Saddler say he wanted you alive?" I reminded her. "The worst that could happen is they turn is into one of those parasite freaks."

She became quite for a second, and then said, "I'd rather be dead turn into one of them."

"… Amen to that." I couldn't help but agree.

About two minutes later, the bugs dropped us off outside a big tower. And when I say _dropped_, I mean it literally. It hurt like a bitch.

We looked up at the three people standing in front of us: Salazar and his two bodyguards.

"Thought you could get away that easy, huh?"

"What the hell do you want from us?" I said while coughing.

"I thought it was obvious now." The man-boy replied. "To turn you into Ganados and ship you off to America. Didn't Lord Saddler explain it to you?"

"He's no Lord." I retorted. "If anything, he's the devil! It isn't right what you're doing to people!"

Apparently I'd hit a nerve. "Up!" He shouted at us.

Sure, Salazar was just a small, puny little man, who probably couldn't even take a punch, but his guards' eyes were glowing red, and you couldn't see into their cloaks, just their mouths that moved ever so slightly when they would breathe. So we both followed Salazar's orders, terrified of what the cloaked things would do to us if we didn't behave.

After he tied our hands behind our backs and took any weapons we had, we began walking across a bridge and the second we stepped off, it swung around to another part of the castle.

Suddenly, Salazar pulled out what looked like a phone and began talking into it. "I wonder if you can see me, Mr. Kennedy."

I snapped my head up. _Leon?_ Ashley and I exchanged looks; she was thinking the same.

Our thoughts were confirmed when we heard an angry voice coming from the other end. "If you even _scratch_ them I'll break your bones."

We didn't have time to blush; we were too terrified of everything else they could do to us that would be a million times worse than just a mere little scratch.

"First we shall see if you can make it this far… I'll be waiting." And with that he hung up and motioned for us to go forward.

We entered the room and Ashley and I both gasped at what we saw. Two of those things with claws were standing in the middle of the room surrounded by about eight zealots.

"Relax," Salazar said. "They won't hurt you… they're here for Mr. Scott." He kept walking forward with an evil grin plastered on his face. Ashley and I kept stealing nervous glances at each other until we were finally past them and out of the room.

After being not so kindly escorted up two flights of stairs, we entered a room that was mostly empty except for a throne that sat against the back wall. The black cloaked guard took Ashley and sat her down on her knees on the left side of the throne, and the red one took me to the right. We sat there for about ten minutes, neither of us dared to ask why, until finally the door opened and in strode a very handsome man.

"Girls!"

"Leon!" We both shouted back. He ran up to us but stopped about four feet in front of Salazar's throne.

"Mr. Kennedy…" He said. "Don't you know when it's time to throw in the towel?" He lifted up his hand and pressed down on a red button on the arm of his chair. Suddenly, there was a draft coming from where Leon was standing and the floor dropped, making Leon fall to his inevitable death.

"_LEON!_" We both shouted at the top of our lungs. Could he be dead? What would happen to us if he was?

We sat there in shock, our eyes wide and filled with tears as our hearts beat mercilessly. Leon was dead. Our hero, our rescuer. The man who I had fallen undoubtedly in love with since this whole nightmare had started. I had finally given up hope, but then—

"Hmm… where's the satisfying sound of one's impalement?" Salazar was listening through an old-fashioned speaker that was connected to the side of his throne. And what did he mean he couldn't hear an impalement…? Did that mean Leon wasn't dead?

My question was quickly answered when we heard a loud gunshot and Salazar cry out in pain as the sound echoed directly into his ear. "AHH! How dare you! No more games, kill him!" Nobody did anything. "Kill!" He began stomping and the guard in front of me walked off somewhere to the left of me, but I wasn't paying attention. My focus was directed at the man who was shouting to his other guard.

"Quickly, we shall prepare for the ritual!"

Ashley and the other guard walked over to where I was standing, and he pushed me forward. I took one last glance at the whole in the floor and said "Leon… you better be alive…"

_Yaaayyy! I iz finished! I really like this chapter lol and I'm sooo happy about how it turned out. Just as last time, I'll get to working on chapter 10 tomorrow… wait…. Chapter freaking ten… That seems like soo much since I published this back in October….. Well, I'll keep this short: I really hope you guys liked this chapter, and I'll be looking forward to your lovely reviews! You know how happy they make me! :D_


	10. No Control

_I can't believe it's already chapter ten! *squeals* Ehhmm…. Kay I'm done. I just want to say thank you guys soo much for reading this and sticking with me this long, it's been soo fun :D And yes, I realize I'm skipping soooo so much by me getting caught in the trap, and Ash and I both getting flown away… But I have my reasons! Never doubt the mysterious ways of my mind. o.0 Hah. Okay then. _

_OH YEAH! How do you like my new profile picture? :D_

Salazar had brought us to a room with very creepy looking decorations- at least I had hoped they were decorations. There was a big, slimy, pulsating flower looking thing on the back wall, and the rest of the wall was just slimy. He had told us to wait in there, and if we moved he would feed us to his 'cute pets', which I didn't really feel up to finding out what those were. We were sitting on steps in front of a stone table when Ashley said something.

"D-do you think he's coming for us…?" She asked. She had been crying almost the whole time after the midget dropped Leon down that hole.

I sighed for about the twelfth time. "I'm sure he is, Ash."

"What if he dies?"

She asked the question that had been on my mind for hours. What if Leon died? I didn't think I could handle that. I would probably just give in and let them turn me into one of those filthy Ganado freaks. "He's coming back, Ashley. I know he will." I didn't actually _know,_ but I had to lie for her sake, and possibly mine too.

Just then, the doors in front of us opened and in came a whimpering Salazar, whose hand had been bandaged, followed by his bodyguard. There was still no sign of the one who had gone after Leon; that gave me hope.

"What's the matter," I asked, looking at the bandage on his left hand. "Fap too hard?"

He gave me a stern look. "You shouldn't be so sarcastic with the man who will be in control of your life sometime within the next few days."

"Leon won't let that happen."

Salazar laughed coldly. "You think the American has the power to stop the Las Plagas transformation? He has also been infected. Soon enough, he will join us; become one of us… just like you."

"I think you're forgetting something." I retorted. "I was injected with the little egg things _hours_ after Ashley. If she's just now ready for this 'ritual', don't you think it's a bit too soon for me?"

It seemed as though that was exactly what he wanted me to say. "Ah, yes… Ms. Ryan… we've prepared a special ritual for you…"

Just as he said that, I got a horrible pain in my chest, ten times worse than when I got caught in that trap. With every cough, at least half a cup of blood came pouring out of my mouth.

"_Emily!_" Ashley shouted.

My vision went blurry, and the last thing I heard was from Salazar.

"She's ready…"

…

I was having a nightmare, except in that nightmare it felt so _real_. I dreamed that I was back in the village and it was dark. So dark, in fact, that I couldn't see anything. The only light came from the occasional flashes of lightning.

The weird part was I couldn't control anything I was doing. I could see, but it was as if someone else was controlling every movement I made. I was just standing there for a while, occasionally looking around at my surroundings, until I saw two familiar looking people walking through the village.

_Mom? Dad?_ I called out to them, but my voice wouldn't work. _Mom! Dad!_ Still nothing. Before I knew it, I was running towards them. I wanted to open up my arms and hug them, and have them tell me everything was going to be okay, but that's not what happened. Apparently I had spawned a kitchen knife, and was now trying to slice them with it. I tried to stop, but my arm kept moving. I was crying on the inside, wishing everything would stop, that I would just die and I wouldn't have to witness their deaths again, when suddenly the scene changed. I was standing in front of the church we had found Ashley in when I saw a very muscular man wandering up the path through the graveyard, weapon ready.

_Leon! _I tried to shout, but no sound came out. _Leon, please help me!_

He had spotted me, and I was sobbing now. I didn't want to hurt anyone, but my legs began moving on their own. There was a loud gunshot, and I jerked awake in a cold sweat.

Gasping for breath, the remnants of my dream slowly fading away, I looked around to find I was in a boat driving in the middle of the ocean. Ashley lay asleep beside me, and there were two oblivious Ganados driving the boat in front of me.

"Ashley, wake up." I nudged her arm gently as she slowly returned to consciousness.

"Wh… where are we?" She asked, still a bit drowsy.

"On a boat somewhere…"

We didn't say much after that, just looked around, trying to find any clues as to where we might be headed.

About thirty minutes later, we arrived at a very run-down looking island. The men forced us out of the boat, threw us over their shoulders, and began walking through an area with many other freaks loitering around. There was a big, muscular guy carrying a Gatling gun and I just prayed Leon wouldn't have to fight him.

Speaking of Leon, Ashley wouldn't stop screaming his name. "_Leon! Help!_" She shouted over and over again.

The men took us through doors and into a very dirty building that had rotten meat all in it. I felt like I was about to puke. I would have fought the men carrying us, but whatever they did to me during the ritual had left me feeling weak and tired, and I didn't think I would have been able to win. About ten minutes later, we arrived at our apparent destination. There was a metal door with bars just at eye level on it. There were a lot of boxes set up around the room, which I decided to sit against while Ashley continued to bang her hands against the door and yell for Leon. I was pretty sure the men in the room with us were getting pretty tired of it, but before I could say anything, one of the men approached her, and threw her down on the ground.

"Ashley!" I stood up, ready to beat the hell out of him, when the other guy came up behind me and shoved me on the ground as well.

Just then, one of the men pointed to a security camera up on the ceiling, and I immediately shouted "LEON!" I somehow had this feeling he was watching, but before I could say anything else, the camera was shut off.

One of the men was slowly approaching Ashley, who lay on the ground frozen in shock. I was about to stand up, when the other guy started walking over to me. When he was in front of me, I swung my leg around, hitting him in the legs and making him fall to the ground. This had caught the attention of the freak by Ashley, and while he was distracted, she did the same. We stood up and ran to the back of the room while they were slowly standing up, looking for anything to fight them with. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything, and Salazar had taken our guns so that left us with basic melee combat.

As soon as the men rounded the corner, I ran up to the closest one and kicked him right in the balls, making him fall to his knees, then I grabbed his jaw and twisted his head all the way around. After he disintegrated into the ground, I punched the other guy in the face making him fall to the floor, and Ashley and I took turns stomping on him.

Once he was gone, she turned to me with wide eyes. "Where on earth did you learn how to fight like that?"

I took a few seconds to catch my breath before saying "I have _no_ idea."

We sat down in the back of the room and began talking about random things. What we usually liked to eat for dinner, random childhood stories, and things like that, basically continuing our conversation back when Leon fought the village chief. Somehow or another, the topic got switched to Leon.

"So… what do you like most about him?" I asked the blonde beside me.

She immediately blushed, but answered anyway. "Oh… I don't know… his hair maybe?"

I laughed. "Yeah, he does have pretty awesome hair."

"What about you?"

"What?"

"What do you like most about him?"

"Erm… I don't know… That's a really tough decision." I laughed again.

"How so?" She asked.

"Come on, really? Have you _seen_ the man's eyes? They're like the color of diamonds and sapphires mixed together! And don't even get me _started_ on his arms… Oh, and what about his abs?" She looked at me in shock, and I continued. "N-not that I've ever s-seen them, but you can _feel_ them through his shirt!"

We both laughed loudly and when we quieted down, she turned to me and asked, "So who has dibs?"

My face reddened. "W-what?"

"Who has _dibs?_" She spoke slowly as if I was a fish or something. "I mean, you're obviously rather fond of him, and you met him first, but I'm older."

"Well what does being older have to do with anything?" I was suddenly very defensive.

"Well one: you're not even a legal adult yet, and two: he's like ten years older than you! Do you know how creepy that sounds?"

I was taken aback by her words. Maybe she was right, and I was just in over my head. I mean, why would he ever even think of me like that? I was just a dumb, naïve, teenager who knew nothing when it came to relationships. Why should I even bother trying?

"I… I didn't mean…"

"No, you're right…" I chuckled softly. "I probably sound stupid, huh?"

She sighed. "No, you're not stupid. I mean, you're _really_ mature for your age, and you look older than you are… who am I to say who you can and can't be in a relationship with?"

We were quiet for a second, but then I remembered Salazar and the 'ritual'. "Hey, Ash, what happened after I passed out?"

"Huh?"

"You know, back at the castle. I passed out in front of Salazar."

"Oh that. Yeah um… Basically he just started murmuring all of these things and then he got all angry… I'm not too sure…"

Before I could reply, the door opened and we heard footsteps walking in our direction. Fists ready, we slowly rounded the corner and then suddenly my face hit something hard. Looking up, I saw soft, blue eyes looking down at me.

"Leon!"

I hugged the man with all my might, and he hugged me back, along with Ashley. When I pulled away, I was surprised to find tears in my eyes.

"I-… We thought you died." I said and Ashley nodded beside me.

"Oh, come on. I had to get back to my girls."

I couldn't help it; I threw myself on him again. I was probably making it obvious that I was falling head over heels for him, but I didn't really care. Leon was back, and we were safe… at least for a little while.

…

"Well, this is it."

Leon had led Ashley and I back to the waste disposal area.

"Y-you can't be serious, Leon." I said, backing away from the edge of the hole.

"As serious as I'm gonna be."

"'It stinks!" Ashley complained, grabbing her nose.

"Sure does." He said before grabbing both of our hands and jumping down into the vent.

We landed on a large pile of trash and Leon was the first to stand up.

"Are you out of your mind?" Ashley asked as I was standing up.

"I knew you'd be fine if you landed on your butt."

I laughed as he helped her up, but I turned around when I heard her ask, "What is this thing?"

She had landed on what looked like a deformed body that was covered in spikes, and it had long, sharp teeth that didn't fit in its mouth. And apparently it was slimy because there were juices sliding all down her arm.

"Come on!" Leon said as he pulled her up.

There were bars blocking out way to the other side of the room, and as soon as we pulled the lever to lift them up, we heard rustling behind us and heavy, shaky breathing.

"What is that thing?" Ashley hollered.

"Hurry, come on!" Leon had quickly run through the doorway and was standing by another lever, which I guessed dropped the bars again.

Ashley and I ran and stood by his side, and as soon as he hit the lever, the bars dropped and the thing was trapped on the other side.

We ran over to a large box and pushed it to fill the gap in the bridge when we heard the bars rise again.

"Did he just pull the fucking lever?" I asked rather loudly.

"Just come on!"

But we couldn't run far, there was another thing right around the corner. Good thing they walked slowly.

"Girls, hide in there!" He pointed to a small dumpster.

"Leon, I'm pretty sure if they can pull levers, they can open dumpsters."

"Just do it!"

We quickly hopped into the dumpster and shut the lid. There were a few gunshots, and then we heard an explosion. We waited a few seconds and then we heard Leon say "Okay, it's safe!"

After stepping out, I walked up to Leon and said, "Are you going to tell us what the fuck those things were?"

He sighed. "I would, but I don't even really know myself."

"Well what was that explosion?" Ashley asked.

"I bought another Rocket Launcher."

Nobody said anything. "…Anything else?" Leon asked, waiting for us to dump another load of questions on him.

"N-no…" Ashley and I said.

He nodded and walked across a metal bridge, and over to a side room where another big metal box was blocking a door. We quickly pushed it aside and stepped through. The rest of the area looked really run-down. Every hallway we walked through had rocks everywhere, and holes in the walls. Eventually we came up to a ledge you had to jump from to reach another room. There was a hole in the floor filled with lava, a giant wrecking ball hovering over it, and an operating room in the far right corner. As soon as we jumped down, Ashley pointed to the left at a large pile of rubble, saying "Look, there's a gate here.

Turned out, she was right. Under all of that debris there was a giant rusted door.

"Well how do we get through it?" I asked.

"I'm guessing with this." said Leon, looking up at the giant wrecking ball.

Just then, a door opened in the back of the room and out poured about a dozen Ganados, followed by a massive freak, covered in metal armor and wielding a giant mallet.

"You girls go pull that lever, while I fight off these guys!"

Ashley and I both ran into the operating room and pulled the lever that operated the wrecking ball. It immediately swung forward, barely doing any damage to the pile of rocks blocking the door.

"Hit it again!" Leon yelled from outside, shot-gunning away at all the new people that showed up.

I nodded and pulled the switch down. Once again the ball swung forward, but it only did a little more damage than last time.

"One more time!"

_BANG!_ Finally, the rocks were crushed, and we could open the door. Ashley and I ran out of the operating room and up to Leon.

"Come on!" He yelled, and we ran through the gate with the freaks still chasing us.

As soon as we were on the other side of the gate, we heard very heavy and shaky breathing. Ashley and I cowered in fear behind Leon, and he kept giving nervous glances at the shutter in front of us.

"Stay right here." He said, as he began slowly walking forward. He pulled the lever and when the door rose up, it wasn't like the last one. This deformed guy didn't have spikes all in him; he was just a dusty gray color. The thing was dead in about a whole magazine of _TMP_ bullets.

Sighing in relief, the agent turned back to us. "Those guys aren't as bad. All they do is Regenerate their limbs and such. Thus, giving them the name _Regenerator_."

My eyes grew wide. "R-regenerate their _limbs?_ How the hell is that even possible?"

"How the hell is any of this possible?"

He had a point there, and I knew better than to say anything about it. He had this look in his eyes that warned me not to cross a certain boundary, even though I had no idea what it was.

There was another Regenerator down the hall, and once Leon killed him we found that the next shutter we had to pass through wouldn't open. After back-tracking, we found a room that had a power switch in it, and when we pressed it, the shutter opened, but only about halfway. I carefully crawled under it and pulled a lever on the other side, opening the door.

"Nice job." Leon said, and I, obviously, turned very red.

Around the corner there was a door with a 'high-security lock' on it. All we had to do was pull two levers at the same time when it gave us the signal… Yes, very high-security, Saddler.

This room was filled with boxes, and there was a large pickup-truck/bulldozer in front of us.

"I'll drive!" Ashley called out as she climbed into the seat by the steering wheel.

Leon and I hopped up onto the bed of the truck and jerked forward when the truck started up. Ashley tore down the door blocking our path and when she began driving forward, Leon and I gaped at each other.

"How on Earth do you know how to work one of these things?" I asked.

"I don't know!" She replied with enthusiasm. "I'm just pressing buttons!"

Leon's face blanched, along with mine, and he turned to Ashley. "Uh… maybe I should drive Ash…"

"What? No! I can do this, rea-"

Just then shouts came from behind us.

"Ashley, drive!" Leon shouted. He pulled out his gun and began shooting the men who were running after us. He tossed me some ammo and I quickly reloaded my gun and did the same.

We were keeping them down quite fine, until another truck came barreling towards us, its horn blaring.

"What do we do, Leon?" I asked in a panic, but he had already pulled out his _TMP_ and had begun shooting the trucks engine. In about three seconds, the truck had erupted in flames and had crashed right in front of us.

I caught my breath and smiled at the man. "That was close."

"Too close." He nodded.

"And kind of amazing…" I admitted, not looking him in the eyes.

He grinned a toothy grin with his eyebrows raised at me, turning my face red. Then, the truck stopped and another shutter fell down behind us, so we couldn't go back. "Leon, up there!" Ashley pointed to a lever up on a floor above us.

"Alright, I'm gonna go up there and pull that lever, Emily, you stay and shoot anyone who jumps down, and Ashley…" She looked up hopefully. "Just sit there until I get back." Her look suddenly fell, and I couldn't help but laugh receiving a glare from the blonde.

Leon hopped off the back of the truck and climbed up a ladder to our left. We heard him fight a few guys up there, and some even jumped down onto the truck, and I shot them like Leon told me too. After about two minutes he was back aboard the truck, and the lift was rising, taking us to our next destination.

Suddenly we stopped and doors in front of us opened and Ashley was driving again. There were a lot more people who ambushed us this time. Too many people for Leon and I to handle, even with his trusty _TMP_, so he pulled out Ye Olde _Striker_, and there were body parts flying everywhere.

"HAH!" I shouted, laughing hysterically. I would have considered this a serious issue if we were in any other situation, but they weren't really people anymore… were they?

Unfortunately I couldn't finish my thoughts because just then another truck blared its horn and Ashley shouted. "It's coming right at us!"

Leon did everything he could, but the truck wouldn't stop barreling towards us. At the last second though, Ashley twisted the wheel hard to the left, and we crashed into the building next to us.

There was dust and rubble everywhere. I heard the sound of grunting immediately followed by "Are you girls okay?"

"Yeah…" Ashley grunted stepping off the truck.

"Em?" Leon called out.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine… _Ah-!"_ I screamed in shock and pain. My hair had been caught under one of the rocks. Leon was immediately at my side.

"What's wrong? Where are you hurt?" He was flooding me with questions again.

"It's my hair…" I said. I knew putting my hair in a ponytail would eventually cause some kind of harm. Well, not really, I just didn't want to admit to myself that after all we had been through, my _hair_ would be the thing to hurt me. Tsk tsk tsk, Emily you klutz.

"Hold on, I'll get it." Leon quickly lifted the rock that was pinning me and I was free.

"Thanks." I said with a small smile.

"No problem. You ready?"

I assumed he meant ready to go and keep moving, even though I had no idea where we were even going anymore. "Yeah, just hold on."

I pulled out the ponytail keeping my hair up, and let my free hair fall down past my shoulders. I shook my head a few times and tamed it with my hands.

"Better?" I asked with a smile. Leon shrugged and Ashley nodded, smiling back. "Great, then let's go!"

I trudged forward, not saying anything else. The truth was, I was really looking forward to a compliment or _something_ from Leon, not just a shrug. Although, to be honest I had no idea how my hair looked, it could look horrific. I shook my head slightly and opened the door to the next room. There were multiple chairs in front of us, but the main thing I noticed was the blue torch in the back of the room. I didn't run up to him yet, because Leon wanted to loot the room first, even though I had assured him we wouldn't find anything. If there was something valuable, the Merchant probably would have taken it. But he didn't listen and kept searching.

"Leon," Said man looked at me. "If you could have anything you wanted in this room right now, what would you want?"

He thought for a second. "Anything I want?" I nodded and he continued. "Hmm… that's a tough one. But if I had to choose, I guess I'd want three one-way tickets back home."

I thought about that for a moment, and then he said, "What about you?"

"What?" I looked up at him, not understanding what he was talking about. My mind was elsewhere at the moment.

"What would you want?"

"My parents." I answered immediately, and he rolled his eyes.

"Well, that's a given. Anything other than that."

_You. I want you and I want you like I've never wanted anything else, parents aside._

"Uh…" _Please don't say 'You.' Please don't say 'You.'_

Thankfully, I didn't; I said the second thing that came to my mind. "Cheesecake."

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. "Cheesecake, huh?" I nodded. "Yeah, that does sound pretty good."

"What about you, Ash?"

"Huh?" She snapped her head up. She'd obviously been deep in thought about something.

"If you could have anything in the world right now, what would it be?"

"Oh uh… Chinese food." She said with a large, toothy smile.

"Oh, I_ LOVE _Chinese food!" I quickly agreed.

The man beside us just chuckled and finally walked up the Merchant.

I was mentally arguing with myself while he exchanged jewels and such with the masked man. I was going insane. Leon was ten years older than me, why was I wasting my time thinking about him so much, when I knew there was virtually no chance of me ever having a shot with him? I mean, he was gorgeous; he could have any woman he wanted, what made me think he would even want to look at me twice?

Whatever it was, it was driving me forward. I hated to admit it, but I was head over heels in love with him, and that wasn't going to change anytime soon.

"You ready to go?" Leon asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. I know I've mentioned it before, but just that _one_ look, the one where there's just a glint of _something_ in his eyes, and only a half-smile on his face. That one. It made my heart race and my face turn a deep shade of red.

"Y-yeah…" I said, walking past him, trying to hide my face.

The second I saw what was behind those doors I gasped rather loudly. The room was empty except for a table that stood up on the floor above some stairs, but that's not what scared me; Saddler was standing there, holding his freaky pole, and giving us a glare that could cut through steel.

Leon rushed out and stepped in front of Ashley and me.

"I can feel them growing ever so strongly inside you…" Saddler said in his creepy voice.

"Saddler!" Leon shouted. He began sprinting forward, towards the robed man, but suddenly Saddlers hand shot up and Leon stopped dead in his tracks, clutching his chest. He was screaming and grunting in pain.

"_Leon!" _I screamed. Ashley looked almost in tears.

"Perhaps you can resist… but you cannot disobey." I hated that man. He was the reason so many people I cared about were dead. My mom, my dad, Luis… I didn't know if I could make it out of there if he took Leon from me, too.

With Leon still grunting in pain on his hands and knees, I began rushing forward. I didn't know what I would do once I got to Saddler, but I was running. Not for long, though. Suddenly there was an overwhelming pain in my chest. I couldn't process what was happening. I collapsed to the floor as I felt the pain as strong as a hundred daggers digging themselves straight into my torso. I was screaming so loudly, I was shocked at how much sound could find its way out of my throat. My screams sounded desperate, and were filled with so much agony it scared me. My eyes were watery with the sheer pain and my breathing came out in sharp, shallow rasps. Sweat dripped down the side of my face and covered my forehead in a thin sheen. Eventually, my screams were reduced to loud grunts and sharp intakes of breath. I didn't know how much more I could take. That's when I heard Saddler scoff and move his hand towards Ashley.

"Now, come to me… Ashley."

I could hear her gasp, and a few seconds later, I saw her muddy brown boots walk their way across the room, to the man standing there.

"Ash…ley…" Leon managed to grunt out. I knew he was still in pain, and not being able to do anything about it hurt. So I had the _very_ physical stabbing pain in my chest, and emotional pain gnawing at my heart-strings.

I squeezed my eyes shut tight. I wanted the pain to go away, for everything to go away. It was all too much for me. I would need serious therapy after everything ended, that's if it did.

To my utter disbelief, the pain in my chest slowly began fading, and I sat up clutching my chest.

"You okay?" I heard Leon ask and he crouched down in front of me. I felt the need to cry and hug him at the same time. I looked up into his eyes, and I swear I don't know what came over me, but I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his.

His mouth lay dry, unmoving, but still the sweetest thing I'd ever tasted in my life. I moved my tentative lips over his. I didn't really expect him to respond in anyway, but when I felt his bottom lip make the slightest of movements, I reached up and placed my hands on either sides of his face. It wasn't like it was in the movies; it was so much better. One of his hands was resting on me neck, guiding me to his lips. My heart was racing and my hands slowly made their way down, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, one of my hands entangling itself in his hair. I could tell he was very tentative about everything, but it was obvious a small part, no matter how deep down, wanted it too; he kissed me back with almost the same amount of force. It was right after I gently brushed my tongue against his bottom lip when he finally pulled away.

"Emily, wait."

I ignored him, and kissed him quickly one more time. I was falling apart, and he was the only one who could put me back together. I _needed_ him.

When I pulled away again, his eyes had taken on a harder glow.

He stood up slowly, putting some distance between us so he could speak. "I don't think that's the best thing that could have happened…" I refused to look him in the eye. "I…" He sighed. "You're confused, and you don't know what you're doing. Yes, it's normal for a young woman to develop feelings for their rescuer, if you could even call me that, but it doesn't necessarily mean you should act on those feelings."

"Hey, you kissed me back." I retorted. I was trying my best not to let the pain in my voice show through.

He sighed again. "I know, that was wrong of me. It won't happen again."

I stared up at him. "Leon, I-"

"You don't know what you're doing." He interrupted. "Think about things like that before you do them."

I finally stood up, too. "That's the thing, Leon. I _have_ thought about it. I've _been_ thinking about it!"

"You're _seventeen!_"

"Well that obviously didn't matter a second ago!"

I had hit a nerve, I knew it. "Leon… I just…" I took a few steps forward so that I was inches away from him. I could feel the heat radiating from his body and I had to fight the urge to kiss him again. I rested my forehead and my hands on his broad chest, afraid to say anything else. I felt his chest rise and fall before he finally said, "I think… it would be best if we just act like this didn't happen for a while."

I nodded slightly. I'm not going to lie, that hurt. But I know neither of us needed for me to start crying again. That would just freak him out more, and we needed to find Ashley.

_I… just… Yeah I might need to recover from that… xD Just kidding. I'll start writing chapter 11 tomorrow lol. But that was just… wow. I don't even really know what to say… Well… did you like it? How loud did you squeal? (I really hope I'm not the only one who was fan-girl squealing really loud. If so… I have serious problems xD) _

_But yeah, I know Leon might've not even responded to that at all, but….. Just tell me what you think by pressing that shiny gold button down there! It helps me out a lot! :D _


	11. James Bond Has Some Competition

_Ta da! New chapter! Now, I can't tell you if you're going to need any paper bags, or dishtowels this time since I haven't finished writing the chapter yet (well, if you're reading this I have, but as I'm typing this, I haven't), so you should probably just bring them just in case…_

_Enjoy! :D _

Leon and I didn't really speak much after that. We walked through a room with multiple people in it, and the most we said to each other was _'Look out!'_ or _'Hey, there's some ammo over here.'_, but that was it. It wasn't until we had ridden up an elevator and were standing on a metal floor when he actually _spoke_ to me.

"Stay here. I have a bad feeling about this, and… yeah." We were about three stories above the ground, and there were only railings blocking us from falling and receiving serious injuries, if not death.

'_You don't want anything to happen to me…?'_ I thought to myself. I was too afraid to actually say anything. I didn't want to say something wrong and have him hate me for the rest of eternity. I just nodded and he proceeded forward, with me waiting behind in front of the elevator.

It turned out Leon was right, because just then a man dropped down from one of the pipes on the ceiling, wielding a blade. Before I had time to do anything, the man spoke first.

"Been a long time… Comrade…" He said. His voice was almost as creepy as Saddler's.

Apparently, Leon was familiar with this guy, because his eyes widened and he immediately said "Krauser!"

"I died in the crash two years ago… is that what they told you?" He asked, making me more and more confused by the second.

"You're the one who kidnapped Ashley!"

The man named Krauser began pacing circles around Leon, twirling his sharp knife in his hand. "You catch on quick, as expected. After all, you and I both know where we come from."

Just then, Krauser lurched at Leon with his knife, and he dodged just in time. They were both going at each other with their knives now. I didn't know if I should've done something, or stay put like Leon told me to. I didn't want to get on his bad side after what had happened earlier, but I couldn't stand to see him get killed by this guy who had _obviously_ been taking some form of steroids…

"What do you want?" Leon shouted, snapping me out of my thoughts.

The man didn't say anything, just grunted and jumped at Leon again. I didn't know how much I could take of this.

"The sample Saddler developed, that's all." My eyes grew wide. He was involved with this?

"Leave Ashley outa this!" Leon shouted.

"Oh, I needed her to buy Saddler's trust in me. Like you, I'm American."

He lunged at Leon again, and this time he just barely dodged his attack. Then suddenly they both dove over a ledge and I gasped loudly. I ran over to where they just were and stood by where they fell. It wasn't a long fall, and they were already fighting again. Leon had sprinted straight towards him, and sliced his chest. Krauser didn't look too pleased about that, and dove for him again. He swung Leon around, and kicked him down. I held back a shriek and kept watching.

"All for Umbrella's sake…" He said, mysteriously.

"Umbrella?" Leon voiced my thoughts, but it sounded as if that word had significance to something I didn't know about.

"Almost let it slip... Enough talk, die comrade!"

Just then, he lunged straight for Leon, who was still on the floor, with his knife aimed straight at his chest.

I couldn't help it. "NO!_" _I screamed, getting glances from both of them. Krauser looked confused, and I couldn't read Leon's face. Before either of them could move, a gunshot was fired, and the knife flew out of Krauser's hand. We all looked up at where the shot had come from. Both the men had jumped up and were now staring up at a higher platform where a woman stood with short black hair, and a long red dress.

"Ada!_"_ Leon shouted.

Krauser looked at her smugly and said "Well, if it isn't the bitch in the red dress."

Wait- red dress? Was she the woman Ashley had told me about?

"Looks like we have the upper hand, here." She said coolly.

Krauser chuckled before doing a gravity-defying backflip up a ladder behind him. "You may be able to prolong your life, but it's not like you can escape your inevitable death, is it?"

He turned to me and flashed me a glare before turning around and leaving, leaving me to ponder what his intentions were now. The woman and I jumped down at the same time, both walking to Leon.

"You… knew each other?" She asked, referring to Krauser.

"More or less… maybe it's about time you told me why _you're_ here?" He suggested roughly.

She rolled her eyes and looked at me. "So, this must be that girl." Ada grinned smugly. I looked quickly at Leon. Had he told her about me? He was giving the woman a look that warned '_don't push it'._

One glance at the look he was giving her, and all she did was roll her eyes. "Just be careful." She began walking away, but stopped and turned around one more time. "Leon's quite the man."

And then she was gone.

I opened my mouth to explain to him how sorry I was for not staying put like he told me to, but then a loud beeping noise came from his belt.

"Enjoy the reunion with your old friend?" Came Saddler's voice from the other end of Leon's communicator.

"As a matter of fact, I did." Leon retorted.

"Wonderful. I wouldn't want my special guests on my island feeling unattended." He spoke the last words like he was talking to a sad dog.

"Guess I'm supposed to thank you, right?"

"Ah, I have an idea! Since you're here, why don't I introduce you to 'it'." Leon and I exchanged looks of confusion before he nodded and turned back to the device. "'It' should keep you company."

"Can't remember the name, huh? A senior moment perhaps." He said, trying to pry whatever the creature was out of the man.

This just resulted in getting a very forced laugh from him. "Enjoy the fun." He said before hastily hanging up.

"Leon, I-I'm so sorry for not waiting like you told me to. It's just, I thought you-"

"It's fine." He interrupted. "I'm actually glad you came when you did; you distracted him just long enough for me to get away."

I couldn't tell if he was just saying that to make me feel better, or if he truly meant it. "But what about that one chick…?" I asked, looking up at him.

He sighed and shook his head. "I don't really feel like talking about it right now."

I looked him directly in the eyes, very sternly. "Leon. Please tell me."

He looked back at me, but I held my stare; I could see his eyes softening. "…Okay. Do you want the whole story or-"

"The whole thing." I interrupted. "Start from the beginning."

He sighed again. He had a habit of doing that. "Okay. It was September of 1998, you were about eleven, and it was my first day on the force of the Raccoon City Police Department…"

He continued to explain to me everything that happened six years ago, and I mean _everything_. Every inch of detail from finding Claire Redfield, Claire finding Sherry on the search for her brother Chris, then they found Ada who was looking for her fiancé, John, but she was really just a spy for a man named Albert Wesker. Wesker invented the T-virus, which turned people into _zombies_. _Real. Zombies. _I had a hard time believing it until I thought about everything that's happened here and came to the conclusion that anything was possible. I mean hey, I kissed the hottest man on the planet not even ten minutes ago.

It turned out that Wesker was the head of an International Pharmaceutical Enterprise called Umbrella. Ada had been working for him, and was sent to retrieve the G-virus sample, but all of the samples had been destroyed, except for one which had been used on Dr. William Birkin. The doctor's wife confronted Leon about how Ada was a spy, and then shot her, making her fall to her 'death'. He also explained how in 2002, he and Krauser went to South America to search for missing teenage girls, and there was this one freaky chick who totally messed up Krauser's left arm, but I wasn't very interested in that part; I was focused on the story about Ada.

"So… you love her." The pain was obvious in my voice; I didn't even try to hide it.

He sighed heavily. "Remind me why I'm talking about this with you?"

I was quiet, and looked down at my shoes. Maybe he had a point, what right did I have to discuss his love life with him? Then again, I _did_ kiss him earlier…

"Come on…" He said as sincerely as he could, and he turned around to walk to a ladder beside us.

"Wait, is she still working for him?" I tried to hide the pain in my voice, and replaced it with curiosity.

"What?"

"Is she still working for Wesker…?"

He was silent for a second, but then he answered in a short statement. "Yes." He said.

My reply came quickly; I didn't have time to think about it before I was already saying it. "Leon, she lied to you, betrayed you, _and_ faked her own death… can't you take a hint?" I was being harsh, I knew it. But it hurt loving someone when they loved someone else.

He thought about what I said for about two seconds, before walking away, leaving my question unanswered.

"Leon, wait." I called after him, but didn't move.

"Leon, _please…_" There was obvious desperation in my voice and he stopped, but didn't turn around. My eyes very suddenly filling with those dreaded drops of water, and I tried my best to hold them in, but to no avail. "Please…"

Before I realized it, his arms were wrapped around me. To be honest, it just made me feel worse. I was already a total mess, and after kissing him, I was almost positive some wire in my brain had begun to unravel.

To my surprise, I was the one who let go first, even though it only lasted around three seconds.

"I'm sorry." I whispered.

You could hear the confusion in his voice. "For what?"

"Everything." I wasn't crying anymore, but I wasn't necessarily cheerful either. "For coming with you, getting you hurt so many times, getting on your nerves, getting trapped and having you spend so much time looking for me, and I bet someone can find some way to pin me on what happened to Luis, and-"

"Hey," He snapped. "Look at me. That was not your fault. It was Saddler's. Okay? You are not responsible in anyway, how _could_ you be? You were in that trap, remember?"

I nodded sheepishly. "Yeah… And Leon, about what happened earlier, I just-"

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

I was quiet for a moment. "You know, I'm not going to lie. It's going to be a lot harder being this close to you from now on." I gave him a small smile, and he smiled back.

"Am I that irresistible?" Hearing him joke like that again made me smile even bigger.

"You know we're going to have to talk about that eventually." I said as we were walking across the metal floor.

He nodded. "I know." He jumped down a ladder and I followed him.

When I landed safely I looked up at him. "I mean, you can't say you didn't like it." I smirked up at him.

He kept walking forward, never giving me a direct answer. I took it as a win.

We kept walking until we came across a very shiny metal door. Leon opened it with caution and we both looked around in confusion. This had to be the _cleanest_ room I had seen on this island. There were two doors in front of us and I approached them carefully, but as soon as I was within three inches of them, they slid open revealing a white hallway.

"Let me go first." Leon said as he walked past me.

I nodded and after he took two steps, three lasers emitted from the walls. Two were vertical, moving left and right, and one was horizontal moving up and down.

"Follow my lead." He said. He waited until there was an opening and quickly rushed through, turning back around and motioning me to follow him.

I mimicked his actions and once we took a few more steps forward, more lasers shot out. There were five this time, and they kept crisscrossing with each other. Leon waited for a clear path and ran through them, but immediately halted when more lasers shot out. They were all crisscrossed and they began moving forward towards him at a fast pace. From what I could see, there was no way to dodge in time from where he was standing.

"Leon!" I shouted from behind him. When those lasers popped out, the ones behind me all disappeared. Just before they hit him, he dove straight through an opening in the middle. I turned around and began running back. The doors didn't open when I walked up to them, and the lasers stopped about four feet in front of me. But then, about twenty more shot out in front of Leon and he did a super amazing somersault in between them, just barely dodging the lasers.

"What do I do?" I shouted. They were racing towards me now.

"Just get down!"

I did as he said and I laid flat on my stomach, the deathly lasers just barely missing me. But there were more. Leon had pressed a button by the doors at the end of the hallway and more lasers had flashed right above me, moving towards him. He dodged them, of course, but I didn't get to see what happened because I was still lying on the floor, afraid there was going to be more. A few seconds later I heard a beep and looked up: Leon was at the doors and the light beside them had turned green. I assumed it was okay and jumped up, even though if I was wrong I'd most likely be dead.

"Are you okay?" I asked him, my eyes darting all over his body to check for injuries.

He nodded. "I'm fine."

I studied him. Even if he wasn't fine, he probably wouldn't tell me. But I just decided to go with it. "You have to teach me how to do that." I said as we walked through the doors.

He laughed. "Like I said, maybe after this whole thing is over."

That gave me more hope than I thought it would. After this was over… would that mean we'd stay in touch?

My thoughts didn't have much room to wander because this room was even more confusing than the last. There weren't any visible doors, and there was a throne sitting in the middle of the room, a single red light shining down on it, the Las Plagas symbol on the wall behind it.

"What do we do now?" I asked, turning to the man next to me. He seemed just as confused as I was, though.

He walked over and around the throne, revealing another motion censored door behind the throne, the place I thought was a wall. It was a circular elevator that was just big enough to fit a person and have enough room for them to move around in, making it very awkward for Leon and me; we were only about six inches apart, facing each other. I tried my best not to look directly at him, but as soon as the elevator went down it was pretty much impossible. We went down a very narrow and long tube.

"L-Leon?" I called out into the darkness.

"Yeah?" His voice came back louder and closer than I'd expected.

"A-Are you sure this goes anywhere?"

He was quiet for a second and then said, "Well, it has to. Why would you have a_ throne_ in a room that leads nowhere?"

He had a point, so I didn't say much. After a few seconds, though, I simply said, "I-It's dark…"

I could hear the smirk in his voice. "Well, I'm not going anywhere."

A broad grin appeared on my face. "I know."

The elevator came to a slow stop somewhere underground, and we stepped off into a well-lit room. The walls were carved from dirt, and there were lights every few feet. We walked down a few steps, took a right and began walking down a hallway when we spotted the Merchant. I was too distracted by everything that happened earlier to do my usual intro.

I walked up to him casually and Leon looked at me questioningly. "What, no accent, jumping up and down in place or anything?"

I snapped my head up at him. "What?"

The confusion in his eyes grew deeper. "You're usually all excited around this guy."

"Oh… n-no, I'm just…. Thinking."

"About what?"

I rolled my eyes. "Do you really have to ask?"

I had once again managed to redden the agent's cheeks. It was true, though. Just the mere thought of it made my lips tingle, begging for his presence again.

I had absent-mindedly brought my hand up to my face once we got to the merchant, and my thumb had begun to stroke my bottom lip; I could still feel him there. That didn't really help the fact that I already had to fight the urge every second to throw myself on him, back him up against the nearest wall and have my way with him. Not that he wouldn't be able to stop me if I tried- do I need to bring up his muscles again?- I just wanted him so badly, I'm not going to lie, that's probably what would happen if I had the chance.

Apparently, the merchant had heard our conversation, and picked up on the fact that I was staring off into space while stroking my lip, because he was giving Leon and I the biggest sly grin I'd ever seen in my life. It made it even creepier, though, because you couldn't see his mouth; he was wearing a bandana on his face. You could just see it in his eyes, and once I noticed I immediately snapped out of it, hoping Leon hadn't seen.

After Leon had finished negotiating with the man, he turned to me.

"Anything you want?"

I felt like I was five years old and in a candy store with a handful of twenties. But despite my wide eyes, I turned his offer down. "I-I'm fine."

He looked at me slyly. "Liar." He said with a large, cocky grin.

I shrugged. "I just don't like asking for stuff from you."

He raised his eyebrows. "Since when? You know I'd get you anything."

I looked at him, raising my eyebrows too. "Anything? Really?" There was a hint of sarcasm in my voice.

"Anything." He replied.

"You know… I'm not sure it's such a good idea to leave me with that kind of advantage…" I said awkwardly.

Leon rolled his eyes. "I meant anything from the _Merchant_."

"I know, but really I'm fine." I gave him the most convincing look I could and he thanked the man and began walking away. He didn't look convinced, but he wasn't going to push at something that wasn't very important. I just hoped he was at least thinking about the kiss as much as I was.

We walked through two giant double doors and began walking down another dirt carved hallway. Once again, everything seemed to be built over a giant trench, except this one was ten times bigger than the one in the village. There was bridge over a seven foot gap, leading to another hallway, but it was only about three feet wide, and there were no rails. Leon carefully walked over, but I followed him with extreme hesitation. One look over the side told me that if I fell, that'd be it.

"One step in front of the other, Em."

I nodded and slowly stepped off the bridge.

"You ready?" He asked, taking in consideration how tentative I was.

"It's not that I'm afraid of heights or anything…" I explained. "That's just a _long_ drop…"

"Yeah."

We continued walking through another hallway, and started at what it led to. Another _huge_ trench, but this time there were three large container rigs hanging over it, connected to chains dangling from the ceiling.

I turned to Leon, fear visible in my eyes. "Leon, _please_ tell me we won't have to go through that."

He shook his head. "No, it looks like there's a lift over there."

I sighed in relief and we began walking towards it.

But just as we were about to reach it, Leon stopped and looked at something beeping in a puddle of water. It was flashing red, and was about the size of a dime.

"Ashley…" He whispered.

"What is that thing?" I asked, looking in confusion at the device.

"It's a tracker. I threw it on Ashley before Saddler took her away. I guess he saw it though and took it off…"

"Well, it is beeping pretty loud…" I said honestly. That must've gotten annoying after a while.

Before he could respond, the walls behind us shook and we turned around in shock as the shakes worsened. Leon quickly grabbed my hand, and, before I could freak out about it, began sprinting for one of the container rigs.

"What about the lift?" I shouted, barely being able to keep up with him.

"It's on the other side; we can't get to it from here!"

We jumped onto the first rig (well, more like _he_ jumped and pulled me along with him.) just as a giant, mutant creature burst out of the wall and onto the rig after us.

While it has the upper part of a human torso and a human head, its appearance is horrifying and marked by strange scars all over its head, a clawed arm, and a tentacle in place of the other one. Below this, the rest of his body warps into a centaur-like deformed body that has two front legs and two hind ones bonded by a centipede-like fleshy piece of muscle. He had a long, serpent like tongue that kept swishing around everywhere and dirty, brown-ish stained teeth. When he landed, he took two steps forward and roared. My eyes were wide and Leon quickly took out his _Striker_ and began shot gunning the giant thing in the head. This made it mad, or just irritated, and it jumped up and out of sight, but not for long.

"Here, take this." He tossed me his _TMP_ and three hundred bullets to go with it.

"What, wh-" I didn't have time to finish my question because he had grabbed my hand again, turned around, and began walking around the area. "I'm going to go back behind this shutter and press one of the emergency buttons, you're going to hop this fence and press that one. It will save us time and ammunition."

"Okay, two questions. One: How do you expect me to get over that gate when it's taller than _you_, and two: how on earth do you know what to do?"

"I saw everything before we jumped on. There are doors that you get through, and my guess is that once you press both buttons, they open. Now come on, I'll give you a boost."

He lifted me up and helped me over the fence that had a button and a giant red door.

"Okay, you press that and I'll press the other one and run back as quick as I can. If that thing shows up, shoot it with what I gave you; it's fully upgraded."

I nodded weakly, and when he turned around I called out, "Leon, wait. What if you get killed or something?"

He thought about it for a second, and with a smile he said, "I'll try not to." Then, he turned around and was gone. The thing never showed up by me, I guessed he was too distracted by the hot guy running around. I pressed the button and it stopped flashing. A few seconds later, an alarm was sounded and the whole container-rig started shaking, but just enough to feel it.

"Leon…?" I shouted out, panic clear in my voice.

Just then, I heard a shot gun, and the shutter next to me opened, followed by Leon, who was followed by It.

"Leon, hurry!"

He ran up to the door, pulled it open, and the second we ran through, the one behind us dropped. One down, two to go.

"Did that thing fall, too?" I asked Leon as he was reloading his shotgun.

"I doubt it." He said. He began looking for the way to go. We went forward and turned right, but that was a bad move. Suddenly, the creature jumped down from the roof right in front of us. But, not to worry- Leon and I just shot it until it ran away again.

Just like last time, there were two red buttons to push. One was behind one shutter, the other behind another. Leon and I both went different directions, and once again I got the one closest to the door, and all I had to do was round a corner and I was there, but I waited for Leon before opening it.

"Last one." I said with a smile as we stepped onto the final rig.

He walked over to a button that was right by the front door and pressing it opened a shutter, revealing a long dark hallway.

But before we could enter it, the creature dropped down from the roof once more to reveal a giant tentacle that had sprouted from its back. It had a gaping mouth, lined with dozens of teeth. This tentacle also sported a very heavy pair of pincers, which acted as giant scissors and were most likely used to slice us in half.

Leon quickly threw out a Flash grenade, temporarily blinding the monster, grabbed my hand again, and bolted for the newly revealed hallway. The hallway lead straight to the door, but there wasn't a button anywhere to be found.

"Well what do we do?" I asked.

"Hold on…" We kept walking left and found a shiny green button. Leon shot at it and a shutter from the other side of the rig opened up. We ran back through the hallway, turned right, and there it was. Leon pressed the button, and we sprinted back down the hallway. He kept grabbing my hand, making me blush and wonder if he did it so I could keep up with him, or so he wouldn't lose track of me.

When we got to the door, Leon opened it and it lead to a balcony overlooking the deep abyss. There was a hook connected to a very long, fragile looking chain in front of it.

"Wh-where do we go now?" I asked, absent-mindedly squeezing his hand tighter.

Apparently, that gave him an idea. "Have you seen any James Bond movies?"

"Well, yeah but… what does that have to do with anything?" I looked up at him in confusion.

He grinned at me, squeezed my hand tightly, and said, "Just don't let go."

Suddenly we were running, and then we were in the air. Leon had jumped off the balcony, and grabbed the hook just before the container-rig dropped deep into the never-ending chasm below. I hadn't let go of his hand like he told me to, so at that moment, he was the literally the only thing keeping me alive. If he let go, that was it. I'd fall to my inevitable death.

"Smart move." I said, looking up, dangling below him. "Now uh… how exactly do you plan to get down from here?"

Apparently, he was stronger than I thought. He pulled me up with his one arm, the other hanging onto the chain, and held me close to him so I wouldn't fall.

Of course, my face was completely flushed, but that didn't stop me from being terrified of what was about to happen next.

"Just hold on tight." At those words, I wrapped my arms around his torso, buried my face into the side of his chest, and held on for my life as he swung the chain back and forth, and then let go. Those three seconds we were free falling in the air, I had squeezed him harder than I thought possible, probably leaving nail marks in his skin. But then we were safe on the ground, and I was still holding onto him.

After catching his balance he looked down at me. "You can let go now."

"Are we on the ground?" I asked, not looking up at him because my eyes were shut tight.

He chuckled. "Yes, we're on the ground."

I opened one eye, then the other, and then reluctantly let go of the man who had potentially just saved my life. Who knew what could have happened if that stunt didn't work?

I slowed my heart rate and looked up at Leon. "Don't you _ever_ do _anything_ like that again."

He laughed loudly. "Come on, it seemed like you were having a great time."

"We could have _died_! Why don't you leave stuff like that to James Bond?"

He laughed again. "Alright, come on." We began walking towards a grey door, but then a loud roaring came from the trench as the monster scaled the walls, climbing back up for revenge.

This time, Leon practically ripped my arm off as he grabbed my hand and began sprinting forward; ignoring the door we were headed for a few seconds ago. I couldn't keep up with him, and I felt like my legs were about to break off. 'It' jumped at us, just barely missing, and then bars shot down from an arch in the rocks, blocking us from going back.

"What do we do?" I shouted as we ran through a tunnel, away from the creature.

Leon quickly pulled out a magnum, receiving wide eyes from me, and began shooting the thing on the tentacle's mouth.

"Where'd you get that?" I shouted, pumping _TMP_ bullets along with Leon's shiny new magnum.

"At the Merchant guy, earlier, while you were off in your little daze."

I froze. My cheeks were crimson red, and my finger relieved itself off the trigger for a split second. Turned out, that split second was just long enough for the monster to escape, burrowing underground and vanishing from sight.

We were silent and stiff as boards. That thing could show up at any time, in any place.

After about four seconds I looked up at Leon. "Is he gon—"

Suddenly a strong force pushed up and forward, coming from behind me, and I was shoved forward, screaming, into the man I was speaking to. He caught me just in time and stood me upright as it burrowed itself again. The things pincers kept shooting out of the ground, and we ran out of the tunnel, dodging the lethal attacks. There was a large boulder in the middle of the small field, and a flammable barrel right next to it.

"Come on!" The agent shouted, grabbing my hand roughly and sprinting forward. I swear, I was going to have bruises after that.

We ran behind the boulder and the barrel and waited until the monster was right in front of it, shot the barrel and it went up in flames. This stunned the creature just long enough for Leon and I to keep shooting it. Me and the _TMP_ shooting the pincer, Leon and his Magnum shooting his head. In just five seconds, the thing was shrieking in pain, and it collapsed to the floor.

"I-is it dead?" I asked, taking a few steps back just in case.

Just then the bars trapping us in the little area rose.

"Yeah I think so." Leon said with a nod.

We reloaded all of the guns and I handed him his _TMP_ back before walking back to the grey door we couldn't get to before. As soon as we started walking back I smirked and looked up at the tall man beside me.

"What, you're not gonna hold my hand this time?"

"Hey, I had to or else you would have gotten cut in half by that thing."

I laughed. "Yeah, and thanks for that and everything, but I think you could have been a _bit_ more gentle." I said, rubbing my right wrist dramatically.

He smirked at me as he opened the door. "I'll keep that in mind."

He just _has_ to find a way to turn my face red, doesn't he?

_YAY! Three days! I think that's a personal record! :D I'm not sure how many of you even read this, but those of you who do, I have a __**sequel**__ in mind… :) Yes, it's going to be based on something else created by Capcom, I'm not making it up. Here's a hint: It takes place a year after Resident Evil 4, but the actual thing wasn't released until 3 years after the game… I just wanted to tell you all that because I'm __**very**__ excited. x3_

_Anyway, please review and tell me what you think about the story, and what I told you up there ^^^ :)_

_(Oh yeah, and I don't own James Bond or anything)_


	12. Creepy Mutations and Helicopter Pilots

_You know, seeing as how I write these chapters, I should be able to come up with decent names for them, right? Wrong. Sometimes when I'm on that page where you upload a new chapter, I lie down and think for the longest time of what to call it. And most of the time it's not even that good of a name! So I just want to say sorry for the horrible chapter titles, I'll try to get better at it! xD _

_Anyways, this is chapter twelve. I can't believe how far we've come, and that it's almost over! So I hope you enjoy these last few chapters. I plan to finish this story before Summer Break which is in less than three weeks, so I'm going to have to write like crazy! Oh, and please keep in mind that there might, maybe be a sequel. I'm really excited about it :3 And sorry this is so short, but the note at the end explains it. _

_Well… Enjoy! :D _

"Where does this tunnel lead, exactly?"

Leon and I had found ourselves in a giant tent covering a hole with a ladder in it. He had suggested hopping down because he thought it lead somewhere important.

"I told you, there's an opening by a building behind that fence."

I nodded and jumped down the ladder, landing in what looked like an underground mine shaft. I waited for him to jump down too before proceeding forward. I kept having the strange urge to grab his hand again but I knew I better not. Like he said, it was only so that thing wouldn't get me. Even so, my hand felt lonely after that. But so did my lips, so I guess I just wanted _him_.

At the end of the tunnel, there was another ladder and the Merchant. This time, I handed him my _Blacktail_ and asked for a few upgrades. After we finished that, Leon climbed up the ladder first, and then me, and we began walking towards the building and opened the doors.

It actually wasn't a building, it lead to more buildings, except these were old and starting to crumble. It looked like another section to Salazar's castle.

We hopped down a ledge and began walking forward through giant broken columns, when Krauser emerged from on top of a building beside us.

"So… when are you going to introduce me to this little lady?" Krauser asked, looking directly at me.

"Where's Ashley?" Leon hollered, pushing me behind him.

"Protective much, are we?" He said with a smirk, and then his face turned serious. "She's beyond that gate." He nodded his head towards a 'gate' that wasn't visible from where we were standing. "But you'll need three insignia's to get in." We looked at him questioningly and he continued. "One's in the North, the other's in the East."

"And let me guess," Leon interrupted. "You got the last one."

He grunted. "Pretty much means you're on a tight leash."

"Sounds like you got this sorted out pretty well…"

Before Krauser could respond, Leon pulled out a grenade and threw it in Krauser's direction, but he dodged it just before it hit him.

Suddenly, he pulled out a _TMP_ and began shooting at us. Quicker than lightning, Leon grabbed me and dove on top of me just before the bullets hit us. He carefully stood up as much as he could, which was just a crouching position, and helped me up too. Before I could think about it, we were up and running towards a small building to our left. There was a ladder in it and a barred, electrically locked door.

"You okay?" Leon asked me hastily.

Oh yeah, it's not like the man I'm madly in love with was just _on top_ of me or anything. But of course, I didn't say that. I just nodded quickly and then we heard a loud _BANG!_ from behind us. Krauser had burst open the door and was shooting lazily around the room. Leon practically threw me up the ladder, grabbing my sides and heaving me up before I could even acknowledge the fact that there was a psychotic man in the same room as us.

The ladder was just a dead end up to the roof, and when Leon followed me up I stared at him. He had a small gash on his left arm that was bleeding just enough to seep out of the wound.

"Why the _hell_ is he trying to kill you?" I demanded, a mixture of panic and anger in my voice.

"Saddler's orders." His reply came back breathlessly.

Before I could respond, we heard a loud beep from down stairs: the door was open. Leon jumped down first, and then motioned for me; Krauser was nowhere to be seen.

"Come on." He said and I jumped down from the ladder.

The door opened to a part of the building that seemed to have been blown away. There were chunks missing in various walls, creating a sort of path to the back wall. We began walking forward, when all of the sudden Krauser jumped out from behind one of the walls and grabbed Leon from behind, his knife at Leon's throat.

"Go!" Leon shouted, struggling to keep the maniac off him.

I hesitated. I mean, there had to be something I could do, right?

"_GO_!" He yelled, making me flinch before sprinting towards the stairs I saw out of the corner of my eye. I ran into a corner and sat there, with my knees pulled up to my chest. There was a wall beside me with three holes in it, but I wasn't paying attention to that. Leon could be dead, and I didn't do anything. Of course, he had told me to run but that didn't mean I should have. I swore to myself that if there was a next time Krauser popped out like that, I'd do something.

A few seconds later, Leon walked around the corner and I jumped up quickly.

"A-are you alright? Did he hurt you?" Now I was the one spamming him with questions.

"I'm fine. Now come on."

We walked back up the stairs and headed straight this time. There was a bridge with more broken columns on the side of it. I guessed this was where Krauser was standing before because I could see the bullet holes in a building down in front of us. We slowly crept along the stone until we reached a building. We scaled the sides before entering, and found more stairs. These stairs led to a room with half of it blocked by rubble almost as tall as me, and a winding staircase in front of us. As soon as we walked up the stairs, Leon stopped and picked up what looked like an insignia shaped like a panther and Krauser walked out, holding his knife.

"What do you intend to do restoring Umbrella?" Leon asked with caution, pushing me behind him _yet again_.

"Bring order and balance to this insane world of ours." They kept circling each other slowly, and I stayed as close to Leon as I could.

"A psycho like you can't bring order or balance."

_My thoughts exactly, Leon._

"You don't seriously think your conservative mind can chart a new course for the world, do you?" He retorted, although I wasn't necessarily sure what that was supposed to mean.

Suddenly bars shot down in front of the stairs we came from so we couldn't escape and Krauser did another anti-gravity backflip onto some stone serving as a roof over a few pillars.

"What are you fighting for?" He asked Leon.

But before he could answer, I spoke up. "Well what are _you_ fighting for?" I was tired of being shot oat by a guy I didn't even _know_.

"This doesn't concern you!" He shouted.

Leon was warning me with his eyes again.

I ignored him and spoke quickly. "Are you _serious?_ You're _shooting_ at us! I could _die!_ How does this _not _concern me?"

"I'm not shooting _you;_ I'm shooting Pretty Boy over there." He pointed his gun towards Leon.

"You're just jealous because he's hotter than you!" My words echoed, and even though it was true, I immediately regret saying it. Krauser gave me a death glare and after Leon had collected himself from staring at me in horror, he was giving Krauser a glare of his own.

The man laughed horribly. "Oh you should not have said that, little girl."

He pulled his gun out again and aimed it right for me. Just as he pulled the trigger, Leon shoved me a few feet to the left making me fall and almost slam my head against the hard stone. The agent had immediately pulled out his own _TMP_ and began shooting at Krauser making his accuracy drop dramatically. Finally, the man left again leaving Leon and I alone.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He was furious. You'd think he'd be grateful for such a great compliment, but _noo…_

"I-I'm sorry, I just-"

"_Sorry?_ Do you realize what this _means?_ Now he's going to be after you too!"

"All I said was that one _little_ thing! Why would he want to kill me for that?"

"That's all it takes with him." He spoke seriously. "You should have just stayed out of it."

"'Stayed out of it'? I almost got shot! How do you expect me to just not say anything?"

"At least he wasn't aiming for you then!"

"Why does it even matter to you?" I was angry, but I didn't really understand why at the time.

He sighed. I could hear in his voice how carefully he was trying to form his next sentence. "If you think I don't care whether you die or not… You'd be wrong."

My eyes went wide for a split second before I looked at him in confusion. "Well, w-what's that supposed to mean?"

He sighed again. "It means I don't want you killed."

I paused for a second. "And you think I want _you_ killed? Leon, how do you think I feel every time you tell me to run away or whatever while _you_ stay behind and fight whatever, or _who_ever is trying to kill you? It's not a very good feeling considering—" I stopped mid-sentence, catching myself as I was about to reveal my feelings for him. Even if he already suspected it, I didn't want him to know yet.

"Considering…?" He asked inquiringly.

"U-uh… How well you've taken care of me, you know?" I was a terrible liar. "I-I don't like leaving you w-without help… you know?"

He totally didn't buy it. "Okay… Whatever. Just promise me you won't do anything like that again."

I thought for a moment. "I promise I'll try."

He nodded, a small smile forming on his lips, but he quickly hid it. "That's good enough for me."

My cheeks burned red and I tried to hide my widening grin as Leon pushed a statue I hadn't even noticed on a pressure plate that raised bars over a lever beside the door. He quickly pulled the lever and we headed back down the stairs. I followed Leon as he rushed back to the empty building we passed earlier. Apparently there had been another lever there that opened a door in the wall beside the bridge. After Leon pulled it, the door opened and there was a ten foot drop down to a lower level. I jumped down after him and when we proceeded forward, we were stopped by tiny _robots_.

"What the hell?" I asked, pulling my gun out. I shot the closest one and it fell over on its side and exploded. "Awesome!" I said, laughing out loud while shooting the other one.

"Alright, come on." Leon said, walking past me and the broken robot parts.

There was another one up in the air, and as soon as it started beeping Leon shot it, making it blow-up just like its friends. We continued walking, shooting two angry robots in a hallway, and stopped when we reached a giant stone tower, with a staircase winding all the way up the inside of it.

"You should stay here." Leon warned, looking at the suspicious stone walls.

"I thought I said I wanted to go with you!" I looked desperately into his hard eyes.

"No, you said you didn't like running away." He held my stare, and when I didn't look away he continued. "I don't want you going up there. You've seen how dangerous Krauser can be; I don't want you getting hurt."

"Well I'm not letting you go up there by yourself." I walked up to him and stood still in front of him. He knew I was stubborn, but that didn't stop him from trying to convince me to change my mind. When he didn't say anything, I spoke up first. "Now, do I have to kiss you again to prove my point, or are you going to let me come with you?" I spoke it like a threat, but my eyes probably told him how badly I wanted to.

To my surprise, he laughed. "You're really stubborn, you know that?"

I smirked. "So I've been told."

He shook his head and sighed. "Just come on."

As soon as we stepped onto the first stair, metal bars shot down in front of the tower entrance. Leon looked at me dolefully before we continued up the steps.

At the top, there was a blocked doorway to the area I ran to earlier, and a ladder. We were forced to go up the ladder, Leon went first and then allowed me to go, his eyes full of regret. When we got to the top, I realized how small the area was. There were a few boards nailed together serving as walkways, and a bridge connecting the tower we were standing on to another one. We carefully walked over to one of the boarded floors and Leon picked up the second of the three insignias.

Just as we began walking back, Leon stopped and looked up: Krauser was standing on top of one of the broken walls. "Two down, one more to go Krauser." He said.

The man grunted. "We'll see about that." He tossed his gun to the side and we looked up at him, wondering what his next move would be.

It definitely wasn't what I was expecting. He held out his left arm and began groaning in pain. His arm began mutating a giant bladed claw and Leon and I started in horror as he shouted, "Witness the power!"

"You've lost it completely, Krauser." Leon said, completely ignoring the fact that the already psychotic man now had a giant _blade_ in his _arm_.

"Prepare for your death, Leon." He said as he jumped down from the wall, blade ready to slice the blonde man in half.

"No!" I screamed, but it didn't do anything. Leon was now dangling off the side of the tower with Krauser stepping on his fingers. That gave me an idea; he was completely vulnerable.

I ran, picked up Krauser's discarded _TMP, _and began pumping him full of led. He swung his head around and looked at me with his eyes full of malice.

"Oh shit…" Just then, the man left Leon alone and dashed towards me, leaping in the air, and swinging his lethal arm down straight at me.

I leapt out of the way just in time and stood up quickly to see Leon shooting Krauser's back with his magnum.

Suddenly we heard a loud beeping coming from under us. Had Krauser rigged the place with bombs? He laughed loudly and dashed straight for Leon. I shot him again with the _TMP_ again.

He looked torn between two to try and kill first, and picked me.

"You seem kind of fond of her, Leon." He slowly began walking towards me. "I wonder how nice her blood will look spilled on this stone."

I squeezed my eyes shut and crouched down covering my head, even though it would do nothing once that blade touched my skin.

But then, I heard the sounds of an explosion and peeked open my eyes to see dying flames and Leon standing over Krauser's body, catching his breath and holding the last insignia. There was an empty Rocket Launcher on the floor beside him.

I stood up and walked over to him, standing on the other side of the dead man. "I-is that thing your answer for everything?" I said it with a smile, but my voice had suddenly become shaky and my eyes started to burn.

He didn't answer me, he just grabbed my hand again and we began sprinting back to the wall with the three holes in it. Leon jumped down the ladder and held his arms out to catch me. I guessed it was because he thought it would be quicker. The door with the bars was open and it led straight to the wall we needed.

There was about a minute left before the bombs went off and Leon and I were very hastily placing the insignia's in their correct places. Much to my relief, the wall slid back and revealed two doors, which we burst through like two children at the grand opening of a toy store.

Once we were safely on the other side, and heard the explosion on the other side, I leapt up and hugged the living daylights out of him.

"I'm glad you're okay." I whispered into his chest.

"Me? You're the one who almost got sliced in half." He said with a light chuckle, but I could detect the seriousness hidden in his tone.

I pulled away. "Yeah… thanks for that." A thought suddenly crossed my mind and I smirked at him. "But you know… you could have just picked the first option and made things a lot easier for the both of us."

He sighed and stepped back a step, as if he could read my thoughts. "Yeah, well I have a feeling you would have just gone with me anyways."

I shrugged. "Probably."

"See?" His voice lightened considerably. "Now come on. I have a feeling this is almost over."

"That so totally doesn't count as talking about it, by the way." I said as we began walking up the path in front of us.

"I know." He said dully.

"You're just too afraid to admit that you took my lip virginity, aren't you?" I asked smirking up at him.

He scoffed. "More like you _gave_ it to me."

"Yes, and you accepted it gratefu-!"

Before I could say more, Leon had pulled me behind a large cargo box and put his hand over my mouth. I looked up at him quizzically and he removed his hand to place a finger on his own lips. I understood and hushed immediately. By the sound of it, there was a numerous amount of Ganado in the area behind us.

Suddenly, a blinding white light came shining down from above us. Leon pulled out a headset and began speaking into it at what I now realized was a helicopter.

"Hey… it's about time." He said, the relief clears in his voice.

"Sorry, bad traffic." He joked. "I'll cover ya'."

The man flew the helicopter around and began knocking over a large water tower, making it fall and kill only a fraction of the men standing around, but he wasn't done. He pulled out gatling guns and began firing away. In mere seconds, almost everyone was dead and we stared up at the helicopter in awe.

"Now that's what I call backup." Leon spoke into the headset with a large grin on his face.

"The name's Mike. You're looking for firepower, you've come to the right place."

We started running and three guys popped out of a fort. One was on top with a gatling gun, and two inside with crossbows making me wonder where they got that stuff—the merchant certainly didn't sell them. Leon and I ran and hid behind a wall a few feet from the fort, dodging their attacks and reloading our guns. Before we could make our next move, Mike had blown up the fort along with the people in it.

"Okay, I'm starting to really like this guy." I said smiling up at Leon.

He smiled back. "Me too, come on."

Once again we had begun sprinting forward. There were a couple of people up a ladder and standing on some sort of lookout balcony. Leon shot them all down with his _TMP_ and we ran over a metal bridge and into a vacant building and out a door to our left. There was a large, locked shutter and a lever above it a few feet away. To get to said lever, you had to run up a flight of wooden stairs and go down a short zip line.

"You stay here, I'll go pull that." He said, but before he could leave, a gatling gun guy jumped down right in front of the lever. Leon didn't even need to do anything; Mike shot him down for us.

"Be careful!" I called after him as he began running for the stairs.

Those few seconds I was left alone, I kept thinking about the kiss and how he avoided talking about it every chance he got. He had kissed me back, but what if that was only because he thought I needed comforting?

Before my thoughts could go any further, I heard Leon call my name from in front of the door. I quickly ran down to him but before entering, we took quick glances at the newly exposed area. There were two levels; the ground, of course, which was cluttered with mini forts and two giant gatling guns, and walkways all around the walls. There were doors on the back wall and two levers on opposite sides of the walkways.

I turned to Leon who was contemplating his next move beside me, but I had already figured out what we needed to do. "Give me your _TMP_." I said holding out my hands expectantly.

He looked at me like I was insane. "What, why?"

"There are two ladders over there." I pointed to the left. "The one in there goes to the right lever, and the one next to it goes to the left one. Now I'll need your TMP because my puny little Blacktail isn't enough to take out all the guys over there." I pointed to the right upper level. There was a guy with a gatling gun, and a guy with a bow gun. I kept my hands out and my eyebrows raised.

He sighed and handed me the gun. "I thought you said you didn't like leaving me."

I looked at him and, without blinking, said, "I didn't. I said I didn't like leaving you if I could help. But this time I'm leaving _to_ help. Get it?"

He looked as though he were about to tell me not to go, but shook his head. "Sure. Just be careful."

I grinned at him as we were walking to our ladders. "You too."

I didn't do much. Just took out a few guys on the upper half of the shelter covering the ladder, and once I stepped out, I saw Leon and Mike had already taken out most of everybody. Once I got to the barred doors blocking the lever, another muscled man with a gatling gun jumped down from some place I couldn't see. I began shooting him in the head with the gun Leon had loaned me, and once he was stunned, Leon shouted from the other side of the area. "Get back!" he yelled. I did as I was told and Leon threw a grenade at the guy. Once he recovered from that, Leon began shooting him with his semi-automatic rifle as I shot him with the _TMP_. He was dead within seconds, and we both ran over to the levers and pulled them, opening the doors below.

"Nice job." He said, nodding slightly when we met back at the bottom of the ladders.

"Thanks… even though I barely did anything."

"You did enough."

After we opened the doors, we began walking up stairs onto the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean we traveled across to get here from the castle, which, if you squinted hard enough, you could just make out in the distance. We kept running up the stairs and didn't stop until it was too late; we had run straight into a mass of the parasite controlled freaks. They were armed with lightning rods, spiked sticks, and scythes.

As soon as I reached for my gun, we heard the sound of helicopter blades, and Mike flew up in front of us, guns raised. "_Take cover!"_ He shouted, and Leon quickly pulled me out of the way, behind a large stone pillar.

Mike was shooting everyone. There were body parts flying everywhere, and dead bodies all over the ground. He only stopped shooting when there was one guy left; but a falling pillar took care of him. Leon quickly hopped up and stood out in the open, facing the helicopter, but I stayed put, leaning against the stone.

"Thanks," he said. "When we get out of here, drinks are on me."

I never got to hear Mike's response. Before anybody moved, a missile was fired straight for the helicopter. The aircraft was engulfed in flames and metal parts were flying everywhere.

"_MIKE!_" Leon bellowed and sprinted to the edge of the cliff where his friend had fallen to his death. All I could do was stare in shock.

Just then Leon got a transmission from Saddler, but the only thing I heard him say was "Saddler, you _bastard!_" and then something about insects.

After he hung up, he walked slowly over to me.

"You okay?" He asked, holding out a gloved hand. He spoke the exact same way he did before I kissed him. I took his hand and he helped me stand up. I could feel his eyes on me, but I couldn't stop staring at where the helicopter had once flown. That wasn't even two minutes ago, but now he was gone.

"I-is he really gone?" I asked, looking up at the blonde in front of me with water-filled eyes. I know we just met him, but realizing how little time it took death to do its job sent an uncomfortable wave of emotion spiraling through me.

"Yeah…" Leon kept looking at me, his eyes glazed with sorrow. "But come on. There's nothing we can do now, except get these parasites out of us."

As we were walking towards doors in the distance, I couldn't help but notice he still had his hand wrapped around mine, but- hey, I wasn't complaining.

_Okay.. I hate to say it, but it looks like the next chapter is gonna be the last one… D: I know! I'm sad, too! But don't worry, there WILL be a sequel! So we all have that to look forward to… right? YES! But people, people… I need reviews! Maybe I'm being selfish, maybe not. I just know it makes me happy why I know what you guys think! So please review and I'll get to finishing the next chapter :D _

_Oh, and if you haven't figured it out yet, the sequel is going to be on Resident Evil: Degeneration :D (It's a movie, btw. And of course it has Leon in it xP)I just need help on picking a name for the sequel… any suggestions? I don't want it to be too close to this one, or the movie title so… help! _

_Once again, thanks for all you guy's awesomeness and I hope you like the final chapter! ^.^ *hugglez* _


	13. We're Going Home

_Well… here it is! The last chapter… I'm gonna miss you guys… But not for too long :D I'll most likely have the first chapter of the sequel up in a few weeks. Sorry it took so long to get this one up, I just had finals and everything :P But now it's SUMMER BABY! Heh, anyways.. I'm still thinking of a name but once I figure it out, I'll get it posted as soon as I can! Some of you said you'd help if I told you a little bit about what's going to happen but that would be spoiling, now wouldn't it? :P Just keep a look out for that! And I just want to take time to thank EVERYONE who has reviewed and read this story, it means soo much to me that you guys are enjoying it and everything and I'm really thankful for you guys:) Oh, and I also kind of got a bit of writers block in a few parts of the chapter so sorry if it's kind of boring at certain parts :s_

_Well… I hope you guys enjoy the final chapter of this story and I'll try to get the first chapter of the sequel posted soon! Bye! :D_

The doors led to an even more run down place, with stone and dirt everywhere and a building that looked like it would crumble at any second. As soon as we stepped through the doorway, Leon hunched over in pain and began coughing, much like I did before I got caught in that trap, but worse.

"Leon… are you okay?" I walked up to him hesitantly, placing my hand on his back, but that just made him flinch and take a few steps away from me.

"I'm fine…" He spat through coughs.

"N-no you're not… Leon… come on… you can't do this to me now…" My eyes were flooding with water and I tried my best to hold the salty tears back.

But suddenly, Leon got over his coughing fit and stood up slowly. When he turned back around, something about him didn't seem… right. He was walking towards me, his eyes full of determination, and when he brought his hands up, I was half expecting him to kiss me, but that's not what happened at all. He wrapped both his hands around my neck and squeezed hard. I couldn't breathe, beg him to stop, or ask him why he was doing this—

No. That wasn't Leon, it couldn't have been. He would never do anything to hurt me like that… right?

Just when I thought I was about to lose consciousness from lack of oxygen, Leon—no, the thing controlling Leon suddenly let go and he collapsed to the floor, but not before I did. I was on my knees, gasping for breath and coughing up blood. I was confused; why did Leon act like that so suddenly, and what made him stop?

After I had caught my breath, I looked up to see Leon standing there, wide eyed and panicked looking.

"E-Emily… I'm so sorry, I didn't—" He reached down to touch me, but I backed away immediately, trying to get away from him. I was scared. That hurt like hell, and I didn't want him anywhere near me.

Once I was safely on the other side of the room, the woman in the red dress stepped forward. The blonde man looked like he had just kicked an innocent puppy, but I didn't care.

"Just give her time, Leon." She said, crossing her arms and looking back at me for a second before turning to him again. "We have to get that parasite out of your body."

He didn't say anything, and Ada left. I was still on the floor five minutes later, my hands gently touching the skin on my neck; it was sore and tender to the touch. Leon was observing me almost the entire time. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but he looked remorseful. I stood up, wiping away at my damp cheeks and walked straight past him, and headed for a door to his left.

"Emily, wait." He called out, sounding desperate and demanding at the same time.

"Leon, no… I can't." My voice was shaky and tears threatened to spill from my eyes again.

He was hesitant while speaking. "I know… And I'll never be able to tell you how sorry I am enough times… but you need to take these…" I turned around and looked at what he held in his hand. It was a bottle of red and white pills. "It's a drug that stops growth of the parasite… The ones Luis went back for. He gave them to me before…" His voice fell silent.

I tentatively approached him and held out my hand with my eyes shut tight. "J-just give me some."

I felt two pills drop into my hand and I popped them in my mouth and forced them to go down my throat. Without another word, I pushed my way through the door. He knew I needed space, and that's exactly what he gave me. Well, as much as he could without putting either of us in danger, which happened to be about five feet.

We arrived at a very rusted door and Leon held up his hand as a signal to wait and let him enter first, but I instinctively flinched. I knew he wouldn't purposely do anything to hurt me, and the look on his face confirmed that, but like I said, I needed time.

After entering the door, we took a look around the area and noticed how _old_ everything looked. Not like the crumbly and dusty kind like the buildings outside, everything was just so _rusty_. We took a few steps forward and Leon suddenly stopped and signaled me to wait. We listened very closely and my eyes widened at the sound we heard: heavy, shaky breathing coming from just around the corner. I immediately recognized it as a Regenerator.

"L-Leon…?" I looked up at the man and he scarcely nodded before pulling out his _TMP_.

He put up a tough fight, regenerating his limbs every time Leon shot one off, but that's just what they did. Finally, it took enough damage to where the entire upper half of its body burst, leaving the legs to limply fall to the floor.

"Okay, let's go." He said and we began walking forward. There was a door up a few steps on its own little section, but the stairs were broken. We walked over to the side of the stairs and Leon pulled himself up in front of the door. He held out his hand for me and after I hesitantly took it, he pulled me up with him.

We entered the door and rounded a corner, facing about ten people with lightning rods and crossbows. Three of them were hidden behind forts, including a crossbow guy. It seemed like the whole area had two levels, again. The floor, and up a ladder there were multiple rooms that we couldn't see. As soon as we stepped forward two feet, a gatling gun freak emerged from one of the rooms and began trying to shoot at Leon and I. We ran back around the corner and a few minutes later, so did he. Leon threw a few grenades in his direction and a few minutes later he was dead. We headed back into the main area and began walking to two big doors at the end of a hallway, but as soon as we reached it the locks suddenly turned red and a loud buzzing sound was heard. Apparently those guys were smart enough to lock us out from wherever we needed to go.

"Well what do we do now?" I asked the man beside me.

He began walking back up the hallway. "Come on. I think I saw a guy carrying a card key earlier."

Turned out, he was right. As soon as we rounded the corner again, about fifteen people were there and once Leon had obliterated all of them, a silver card key was left. After we cleared everyone else out, we climbed up a ladder, and into a room. On the back wall there was a slot where the card key needed to be inserted. Once Leon put it in, there was another buzzing sound. We continued walking around for a few more minutes until we found more ladders, each leading to a button that, when both pressed, would unlock the door.

I kept glancing up at Leon, still not being able to read his emotions. I felt horrible. I mean, I knew he would never do anything like that willingly, and it was probably the parasite controlling him, but that hurt; physically and emotionally.

He opened the doors and they led to another hallway. There were two guys with shields in it, and after three shotgun shells, they were gone. There were more doors at the end, but I stopped before he opened them.

He turned around and looked at me questioningly. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"I'm sorry…" I said quietly, looking down at the ground. "I know that wasn't your fault, and I probably overreacted… I was just scared, you know?"

"I know." His deep voice came in reply. "Now come on."

I smiled up at him, glad things were back to normal and he pushed the heavy doors open.

My eyes widened at what was in front of us. It was Ashley, but she was sealed in a sort of cryogenic chamber, barely conscious. Leon and I rushed forward but stopped immediately when we heard that thick, creepy voice we both dreaded.

"You'll both soon harbor and awesome power… Yet it seems you would rather choose death." Saddler said, emerging from what seemed out of thin air.

"I'm taking these girls back whether you like it or not." Leon snapped back.

Saddler sighed dreamily. "Oh, the audacity of youth…" Suddenly he ran up at a nearly impossible speed, and before I knew it, we were in the air. Saddler had shoved us back, putting an extremely painful amount of force on our chests. We were both rammed into Ashley's container and fell to the floor, groaning and coughing in pain. Luckily, I had Leon to break my fall—not so lucky for him though. We were still just managing to move when Saddler began walking forward with his hand outstretched, and I had just enough time for fear to flood through me, remembering the overwhelming pain that had consumed my body, when suddenly he stopped and I could hear rapid gunshots. Leon and I quickly jumped up and looked to our left to see Ada holding a _TMP_.

"Leon, now!" She shouted and Leon nodded and pressed a button on the door of what Ashley was being held in. The light turned green and she was lowered and the door was opened, releasing a lot of air pressure. Leon and I quickly grabbed a hold of the blonde and began hastily walking towards a door to our right.

Before anyone could say anything, there were the sounds of explosions and we turned around to see fire and rubble blocking our way back.

Ashley was coughing and gasping in Leon's arms. She looked weak, as if that chamber was draining the life out of her… I guess in a way it sort of was.

"Here… take this." Leon handed her a mixture of Red, Green, and Yellow herbs, and a few of those pills. He helped her swallow them and I watched observantly. He was so gentle, and she looked so fragile; it was sweet, really. Maybe she really was supposed to be with him instead of me. I couldn't think of anything to say, other than asking if she was alright, but Leon had beaten me to it.

"You ready?" He asked quietly and once Ashley nodded weakly we opened the doors and exited the building.

The Merchant was standing outside, his blue torch burning brightly in the breaking dawn. We just bypassed him. We weren't in the mood to sell, buy, or question anything about hit, we just simply continued on down the path and walked through another door, reentering the building. There were two big armored men guarding a large door, but once Leon took out those guys we quickly stepped into the room.

There was a dentist looking chair with robotic arms pointing at it. I immediately knew what it was.

"This hunk o' junk?" Ashley spoke, looking skeptically at the machine. "I- I don't know about this, Leon."

I nodded. "I have to agree with her on this one."

"There's only one way to find out." He said, moving over to the front of the chair. "You operate!" He pointed to a control pad over in the side of the room and Ashley rushed over to it and pressed a button strapping Leon's wrists to the arms of the chair, and moving the robot arms pointed at his abdomen, they were now glowing a bright purple.

Ashley was operating and Leon was having radioactive surgery done on his insides. All I could do was stand and watch as Ashley looked one last time at Leon.

"You sure you wanna do this?" She asked, her finger hovering over a bright red button labeled 'operate'.

"Yeah." He replied. He sounded nervous, like he was about to ride the biggest roller coaster in an amusement park, but he wasn't about to back out when he was so close.

"Alright, here goes nothing."

All I heard was the button being pressed and Leon's groans of pain. I had my eyes shut so tight I was seeing designs on the back of my eyelids. I knew it had to hurt, there was a chance of death, but it still came as a shock to me when I heard his gasps and grunts. Finally, after about four seconds, he arched up in his chair, and fell back with a sigh.

I rushed up to him. "A-are you alright?" I asked, tears suddenly lining the edges of my eyes.

"I'm fine." He replied, sitting up and rubbing his wrists.

"I thought you were gonna die…" Ashley's voice came from behind us. She and I exchanged glances after a while and she took a deep breath. "Alright, guess I'm up."

I watched intently as she gasped and grunted about as much as Leon, and when it was over I sighed knowing what was about to come next.

"Guess it's my turn, huh?" I knew I was going to have to do one of the hardest things I was ever going to do in my life, I was even risking death, but that didn't matter to me considering it was either that or to turn into one of those freaks and lose control of body to a parasite. I sat down in the chair and once my arms were strapped to the chair I tried to control my heart rate. The robot arms were lowered and pointed to my torso.

For a split second nothing happened, but then lasers were emitted from the arms and I felt a shocking pain flood through my body. I'd never felt anything like that before, it was a thousand times worse than when Saddler did his little hand thing. I was struggling in my chair; I wanted to get away from that thing, if it hurt that bad something had to have gone wrong. But after about six long seconds, the pain slowly faded and my arms were released.

Leon had rushed up to me like he had done Ashley and crouched down in front of me. "You okay?" He asked for about the third time. When I looked up, the first thing I saw were his lips but I knew I couldn't be tempted. That didn't stop me from licking my own subconsciously, though.

Apparently he noticed and stood up. "Come on." He said and he offered me his hand. I took it gratefully and he helped me stand up, but he didn't keep holding on like last time. There was an automatic door facing the operating chair and we entered it and walked up a flight of stairs. There was a note on a table in front of two doors leading back outside. Next to the note were some shotgun shells and a yellow herb. The note read…

_Our mission_

_The real power of the United States lies in three areas. The _

_Justice Department, the Administrative bodies, and the Military. _

_In order to take control of these areas, we must influence the_

_minds of the people who advise the President. After this is done,_

_the rest of the departments will quickly fall under our sway._

_If by chance the United States were to figure out our plan, the_

_damage caused should be minimal. We will still be able to conquer _

_the country as planned using our backup plan. Once we control the _

_country, we will use their international influence to our advantage. _

_The rest of the world will fall swiftly. _

_As already stated, if our first plan doesn't go as smoothly as _

_expected, we'll proceed without secondary plan. By sending in _

_our "special" forces we will infiltrate the country from within. _

_Fear and chaos will spread through the nation like a virus. It'll _

_only be a matter of time before the country loses its stability. _

_At that time, when they're most vulnerable, we will strike. _

_Rejoice my brethren; the world shall soon be cleansed._

"That's horrible!" Ashley shrieked once I finished translating the letter.

"We won't let that happen, Ash." Leon said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah," I agreed. "We're going to stop Saddler one way or another."

She smiled, looking a bit more relieved and we headed out of the doors to the left. It was starting to get bright and I could see another Merchant standing outside, and because we ignored him last time, we decided to buy some First Aid Sprays, another Rocket Launcher for Leon just in case, and upgrade our guns. All of our guns were now at full capacity, fire power, and firing speed. I normally would have been excited, but I had this overwhelming feeling of doom slowly dawning upon me.

"Hey," I said, after we were finished bargaining with the masked man. "How did you get out here so quickly?" We all eyed him suspiciously.

He only chuckled darkly. "I have my ways, Stranger…"

I was too creeped out to say anymore.

There were a few steps and then an elevator about fifty feet east of that.

We walked straight up to it before Leon stopped and turned to us. "You girls wait here. I have a bad feeling about this."

"What do you think's up there?" I asked looking at him with fear and curiosity in my eyes.

He looked at me and I couldn't tell what he was thinking. "I don't know…"

"Let me come with you." I stepped forward. His 'feelings' were almost always right, and if it was as bad as he thought it was, I wanted to be there.

"No, Emily, I don't know what's up there. You could get hurt."

"But Leon, there could be nothing up there, and then this argument would've been pointless."

"Then you should have no problem staying behind."

The truth was I had that bad feeling, too. I felt like whatever was up there would end this whole thing, and _somebody_ was going to die, whether it was me, Leon, Ashley, or even the Merchant. I didn't want him going up there alone.

"Leon, wait." Before I could fully process what I was doing, I walked up to him, stood on my toes and grabbed his face with both of my hands. I brought our faces only inches apart and hesitated. My plan was to kiss him, to prove how much he meant to me, but I didn't want him to be angry with me, and have this demolish any chance I'd ever had with him. I couldn't tell if he knew I was worried or not, but it felt like he was waiting. He wasn't pulling away, but he wasn't moving towards me either.

About three seconds had passed since I grabbed his face, and I finally decided to just do it. I tilted my face up to his, and his lips met mine with the smallest taste of dirt and blood. Ignoring Ashley's gasps behind us, I kissed him with all my might.

I pulled away gasping slightly and looked into his bright blue eyes, knowing he understood my point. I didn't really care if he felt the same at that moment, I just wanted him safe.

Finally, he sighed and said, "Just come on."

My face lit up with joy, even though we may or may not have been walking straight into our unfortunate doom. Leon stepped on the elevator, with me nearly running into it, and we both looked at Ashley.

"You comin'?" I asked, smiling at the blush on her face.

"Oh, y-yeah!"

The elevator rose slowly and once it stopped we looked around at everything. It looked like some kind of construction site that was about four stories above the ocean water. There were two things wrong with this picture. One, the construction work didn't even look like any sort of building. And two, Saddler was standing about fifty paces ahead of us, and Ada was dangling from a metal post, tied by a rope.

"Ada!" Leon shouted, but was distracted by Saddler who had begun walking forward with his arm outstretched.

After he saw we weren't thriving in pain, he grunted in frustration.

"Better try a new trick," Leon said, raising his knife. "'Cause that one's getting old." Suddenly, he threw the knife and it sliced Ada's rope, making her fall onto some boxes.

"You okay?" He asked.

"I've been better." She turned her gaze towards Ashley and I before Saddler began chuckling loudly.

"What's so funny?" Leon asked, giving him a glare that could cut through steel.

"Oh I think you know. The 'American prevailing' is a cliché that only happens in your Hollywood movies! Oh Mr. Kennedy, you _entertain_ me! To show my appreciation, I will help you awaken from your world of clichés…"

Saddler opened his mouth, revealing a large, yellow eyeball that was dripping with saliva.

"You girls stand back." Leon said and Ada had just enough time to get up and walk somewhere behind us, but I wasn't paying attention to where she went. I was too distracted at the fact that Saddler had just sprouted _HUGE_ spider-looking legs and was now a massive, multi-legged monstrosity, with the only remaining parts of his human form being the cloak that was still connected to the lower half of his body, and not surprisingly ripped into shreds. My eyes were wide with horror and to make matters worse, the elevator had locked itself and there was no way of escaping.

"Don't move!" Leon shouted and we were both too shaken with fear to disobey.

Saddler wasn't very fast with all that weight he had to carry around now, so it took him forever until he reached the explosive barrel casually sitting next to him, so Leon could shoot it. As soon as the flames hit him, he crumpled down in pain, his little tentacle things flying everywhere. Leon ran up to him, jumped on top of what was supposed to be his head, and gouged his knife into the eye in Saddler's mouth. He immediately threw Leon off of him and sprang back up, walking even faster towards us now. Leon sprinted under his legs and over to a lever, with Saddler following, and once he pulled it a dozen large metal pipes swung around and rammed into Saddler's side, making him collapse to the ground. He climbed up onto the monster and forced his knife into Saddler's mouth-eye thing again. Apparently it didn't feel very good because then Saddler roared in pain, thrust Leon off of him once again, and began angrily stomping over to where he landed.

Suddenly, I got an idea. Without even consulting with Ashley first, I sprinted over to one of the bridges leading to the other side of the site. Every few seconds they would fold down, making them uncross-able before snapping back in place for just enough time to get across. I bolted across the metal and just barely made it to the other side when it folded again.

Leon still hadn't seen me and, ignoring Ashley's look of pure panic, I shouted at the top of my lungs. "_HEY JACKASS, OVER HERE!" _

As soon as I said that I regretted it because just then Saddler shot up into the air and landed right in front of me.

"Oh shit."

I bolted under him, dodging more tentacles and climbed up a ladder to another lever, like the one Leon had pulled. I pushed down using more force than necessary and ducked as more metal pipes swung around and struck Saddler in the side, making him collapse again. I was about to jump down and run for it, but then I saw Leon over here, sticking his knife straight into Saddler's eye again. After he stood up, I ran under his legs again to Leon, who didn't look too happy with my actions.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He shouted before shooting one of the eyes in Saddler's legs.

"All I wanted to do was distract him long enough for you to shoot him. I didn't expect him to _fly_ over here or something."

"You need to think before you do things like that, or it could get you killed!"

I didn't have time to respond, because just then Ada had thrown a _Rocket Launcher _from a building next to us.

"Use this!" She shouted.

It landed right next to Leon's feet. "Stand back!" He said and I obeyed immediately. He pulled the trigger and the rocket hit Saddler straight in the eye. There was blood everywhere and his roars of pain were deafening. I covered my ears and closed my eyes for a few seconds and opened them just as the smoke was clearing. Saddler's mutated body lay unmoving before us, and one of his legs had popped off and stood upright, jammed into the platform we were standing on.

Leon cautiously walked up to him, bent down, and picked up something I couldn't see. But just then, I saw a red dress casually stroll pass me. Before I could say anything, she already had her gun pointed at Leon's head.

"Sorry Leon, hand it over." The woman said.

"Ada…" Leon slowly rose to his feet, arms raised. "You do know what this is…" He handed her what looked like some sort of small container.

I didn't hear what she said next, but then the sounds of a helicopter came from behind me and I snapped my head around just in time to see Ada dive straight over the railing and somehow land inside of it.

I stayed put as Leon ran past me too, and looked up at the helicopter that had now risen to our level. "Don't worry; I'll take _good_ care of it." Ada said, waving the container around in her hand.

"Ada!" Leon shouted.

"Gotta go. If I were you, I'd get off this island, too." She pressed a button on a touch pad and tossed Leon something. "Here, catch! Better get a move on… See you around."

And with that, she flew away.

I slowly walked up to Leon and looked at what he was holding in his hand: a key with a small teddy bear on a keychain with it.

"Very cute," I said, looking up at him. "But uh… what exactly are those for?"

He didn't answer me, just grabbed my hand once again, and nearly ripped my arm out of my socket as he began dashing for the elevator. Good times.

Once we had reached Ashley, he stopped and looked her dead in the eye. "We gotta get off this island now, it's gonna blow any minute."

My eyes grew wide. "Wait, what?" Ashley and I hollered, but he was already pulling us through a dark tunnel.

"Are you sure this is the way to go?" I asked once we reached a ladder to jump down.

"No, but do you have any better ideas?"

We all jumped down and continued sprinting for our lives until we reached a small, four seated boat. Leon hopped in first, sitting in the driver's seat, followed by Ashley, then me, sitting in the two seats in the back.

"Hang on to something!" He barely gave us enough time to do as he said before shooting forward at full speed. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty horrifying. Ashley and I clutched onto the rails on the inside of the boat for dear life. I had my eyes squeezed shut, not daring to open them because I knew once I did I'd probably throw up in my seat.

Apparently Ashley had the exact opposite idea because just then she shouted, "Waves, behind us!"

"I know, just hang on!" Leon shouted back before somehow making the boat go even faster.

I could hear rocks falling, and feel the water splashing into the boat as they fell, with Leon dodging every time. We would tilt one way or the other and I swore we were going to capsize, until finally I saw the light of day through the slits of my eyes. I opened them just a peak and then water spewed from behind us, pushing us out of the tunnel and into the large body of water. We landed with a crash just as the rest of the island exploded, but we were completely unharmed.

He turned off the boat and turned around and looked at us. "Are you girls okay?"

"Absolutely fantastic," I replied, only half sarcastically, coughing up water I had somehow managed to swallow.

He smirked. "Come on, let's go home."

He started the boat once more and Ashley smiled. "Sounds like a great idea… mission accomplished! Right, Leon?"

"Not quite. I still have to get you both home safe."

_Home._ That was something I hadn't thought about in a while. Where would I stay? My parents were dead, as much as I hated to admit it, and I had no other family whatsoever. But I guess these guys were kind of like my family… right?

"Hey… Ash?" I asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah?" She looked over curiously.

"Well I, uh…" How on earth could I go about asking her that? "Well… wh-where am I supposed to stay? M-my parents…"

I fell silent, but she knew what I meant. "I'll talk to my dad, okay? I'm sure he'll understand and he might even let you stay with us for a while." She said with a smile.

"Wh-… seriously? You would do that?"

"Definitely."

I smiled. "Thanks…"

"No problem… So… you and Leon huh?" She smirked over at me and I immediately became very tense. She hadn't spoken very loud, but he was literally sitting right in front of us. There was no doubt that even over the sound of the motor he could hear everything we were saying.

"Wh-what?"

"You heard me! So how was it?"

I couldn't help but laugh at her obvious fangirling. "Just as amazing as the first time."

"_First time?_" Okay, I _knew_ he heard that one. He father probably heard it back in the states.

"_SHH Shh shh shh shh shh… _Yes, Ashley. I said 'first time.' Now will you just quiet down a _little?_"

She laughed. "Okay! I'm sorry! But you owe some explanations!"

"Maybe later… right now I need to uh…" I nodded my head in the direction of our rescuer and she immediately hushed and winked at me as I moved to the front seat beside him.

As soon as I sat down, Leon's transmitter went off. He answered the call and I heard a familiar voice coming from the other end.

"Leon is that you?" She asked and then I remembered who she was.

"Hunnigan is that you?"

"Finally, the line's jack free. What's the status of the mission?"

"I've rescued the subject, along with Emily. We're all returning home safe."

"You did it Leon!"

"Hey Hunnigan… no glasses." Leon said flirtatiously. Maybe he was into her? I leaned back, sitting sideways in the seat, and crossed my legs, observing their conversation.

"May I remind you that you're still on duty," She replied strictly, which seemed to shut him up.

"Story of my life…"

He hung up and I sat forward, getting a quick glance from him. "So Hunnigan, huh?" I said with a smirk.

He shrugged. "Nah, she's not really my type."

I raised my eyebrows and sat up. "Oh? You have a type?"

He shrugged again.

After a few seconds I changed the subject. "So… I might be staying at the white house for a while…"

"I heard." He smirked over at me and I blushed.

"Leon… are we ever going to talk about this?"

He sighed. "You kissed me—"

"Twice." I interrupted.

"Yes, twice, and I may or may not have kissed you back a _little_ both of those times, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything."

And there went my hope. "I-it doesn't?"

He sighed again. "You're young." A mixture of pain and confusion flashed across my eyes and he continued. "Look, I'm not saying no… I'm just saying not right now… okay? If you're serious about this, try again in a few years and maybe- _maybe_- I might think about it."

"So… you're saying you'll try?"

He thought for a second before very carefully saying, "Yes."

A broad smile spread across my face; that was all I needed.

_OH MY GOD IT'S FINISHED! _

_Once again I want to thank everybody who's stuck with this and I am so so glad you've all liked it! Well… keep an eye out for that sequel and remember to give me some name ideas.. please?_

_Okay well… See you later! :D _


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